By now Gerard had figured out that in Frank’s vocabulary, when he said he’d be back ‘later than usual,’ he meant ‘after midnight.’
Waiting up for Frank a few nights in a row didn’t really bother him. He was a creature of the night as it was. Mostly he just felt bad that Frank had to work so much on top of everything he was dealing with.
When Frank eventually showed up at Gerard’s door around twelve thirty, he looked like death warmed over. His face was pale and gaunt. The dark circles under his eyes looked worse than the circles Gerard found under his own eyes after three or four nights of transitioning into a fucking werewolf.
“Hey.” Gerard offered, closing the door behind Frank and sliding the locks into place.
“Hey.” Frank mumbled back, slumping his shoulders and dropping his bag in the middle of the hallway.
“Are you okay?” Gerard asked.
“Uh.. yeah. I just… I just… Yeah.” Frank stammered, turning to look at Gerard and frowning. He let out a deep, stressed sigh and shrugged at Gerard helplessly.
“Tired, huh? Are you hungry?” Gerard asked, “When was the last time you ate something?”
“I don’t remember.” Frank yawned. “But I’m too tired to eat anything now… I think I’ll just crash out if that’s cool with you? Thanks for waiting up for me. Sorry I’m such a terrible house-guest.”
“You should eat something, Frank.” Gerard tutted, ignoring Frank’s self-loathing commentary, “I’ll make us something... you should just go lay down.”
Frank offered Gerard a small, lopsided smile of appreciation and floated off into the living room.
Gerard was feeling smug over having figured out that sliced avocado on toast with a pinch of salt was one of Frank’s favorite snacks. Okay, so what if Mikey had been the one to feed him this information when they’d been on the phone earlier in the day? Gerard had still been the one to go to the store and have to ask an employee in the produce department how to tell which avocadoes were ripe. He’d still been the one to spend almost fifteen minutes in the bread aisle, mumbling to himself over which breads were vegan.
He dipped into the kitchen and popped two slices of bread into the toaster and got to work slicing up an avocado. It was sad, really, that he was in his late 20s and had drawn avocados more than he had purchased them. Buying produce was one of the many grown-up things that had been sort of, swept under the rug after he’d been bitten. It hadn’t been an issue before. It wasn’t like Gerard made a habit of falling for vegans.
Frank wandered into the kitchen silently like an exhausted little ghost. Gerard’s knife nearly slipped when he heard the sink turn on beside him. He turned to find Frank standing beside him, filling up a glass of water. In the past, Gerard had been able to tell when Frank walked into a room purely by smell, but now that he was in Gerard’s apartment almost as much as Gerard was the entire place smelled like Frank.
Gerard wasn’t used to people being able to sneak up on him. Mikey was the only one who knew about Gerard’s ability to tell who was in a room based solely on smell. The younger Way also knew that Gerard was too used to his scent to detect his proximity, which he’d definitely taken advantage of before.
Frank leaned against the counter, sipping his glass of water in silence and watching Gerard as he worked.
“Did you hear back on that apartment we looked at yesterday?” Gerard asked.
“Oh. Uh. Right. About that.” Frank mumbled.
Gerard set down the knife and turned to look at Frank. He had the biggest frown plastered across his face. He sort of looked like he was about to cry. No. He was actually about to cry.
He set his glass of water down and threw himself at Gerard, heaving a deep, strangled sob. Gerard awkwardly wrapped his arms around the smaller, shaking man, as he moaned into Gerard’s shirt.
“Frank, uh…” Gerard started, not sure what the fuck he was even supposed to do.
“I didn’t… get the place… uh…” Frank mumbled.
“It’s not that big of a deal.” Gerard cooed, trying his best to sound comforting. He stroked a hand through Frank’s hair. He totally heard the toast pop up and was torn between getting it and holding onto Frank.
“In case you haven’t noticed…” Frank sniffled, “I don’t have a place to live…”
He made this tiny, pathetic sound in the back of his throat as he tried to fight back another sob. It was the cutest fucking sound Gerard had ever heard. He was glad Frank’s face was buried in his shirt so that he couldn’t see the grin on Gerard’s face.
“Well, Frank… Listen, uh, I know being displaced like this sucks but, just, remember you have places you can go, yeah? It’s fine for you to stay here as long as you want. I love…” Gerard paused, “Love… having you around.” He finished, gracefully.
“I know but…” Frank breathed, letting out more small, sad sounds.
“Here, come with me…” Gerard said, trying to steer Frank out of the kitchen.
Frank continued making his little hurt noises as he followed Gerard down the hallway towards his bedroom. Gerard slid Frank’s cardigan off and ushered him into the bed, all the while trying to think of something comforting to say. No words were coming to him. What could he possibly say to a guy who’d lost his apartment in such a horrific way, who was having trouble finding a new place, when he already knew how Frank felt about apartment hunting in the first place? “That piece of shit realtor said it’s unlikely I’ll find a place before the first of next month.” Frank mumbled pathetically as Gerard slid into the bed beside him and pulled the blankets over their shoulders.
“That’s fine.” Gerard offered, wrapping an arm around Frank’s middle and pulling him closer, “That way you’ll have time to find a place you really like.”
“Gerard, I can’t stay here for three fucking weeks.” Frank moaned.
“Sure you can. You could stay here for three months if you needed to, Frank. You know I don’t mind” Gerard said, planting a kiss on the back of Frank’s head, “And if you get sick of me, you can stay with Mikey, or your friend Jamia, maybe? Or your mom. I could tell she misses you… The point is, no one’s going to let you be out on the street, you know that right?”
“I hate you.” Frank mumbled.
“Why?” Gerard laughed.
“Cause you’re right…” Frank said, biting back a smile and wiping his eyes. He let out a deep sigh and pulled the blanket over his head.
“Sorry for freaking out,” Frank sniffled, “I’m just… fucking stressed out.”
“You should’ve told me you had a bad day. I could’ve gotten you a bottle of wine or something.” Gerard said.
“You do enough already.” Frank said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever properly thanked you…”
“No reason to thank me.” Gerard tutted. “Wait here a minute, okay? I’ll go finish putting your food together.”
“Don’t leave.” Frank whined.
“Well, I can’t just… leave all that stuff out.” Gerard said.
“Sure you can.” Frank whined, hugging Gerard’s arm tight against his chest, “You’re too clean as it is.”
“I resent that.” Gerard laughed, “And I’ve come a long way. Just ask Mikey.”
“Mikey, sort of, already told me about that…” Frank admitted.
“He did?” Gerard asked, feeling a small, inevitable twinge of panic in his chest, “What else has he told you?”
“We don’t really talk about you very much.” Frank said, “He was telling me a story about when he was in highschool and he’d mentioned your... trash dungeon.”
“It wasn’t a trash dungeon!” Gerard scoffed, “I’ll show Mikey a real trash dungeon.”
“No reason to get embarrassed.” Frank giggled, “You saw my old room…”
“Yeah, I guess I did.” Gerard agreed, propping himself up on his elbow to lean over and peck Frank’s cheek.
“Thanks…” Frank breathed.
“For what?” Gerard asked.
“Everything.” Frank yawned, “Really, dude…”
“You’re welcome.” Gerard said, hugging Frank tighter.
He listened to Frank’s pounding heartbeat for a few moments, trying to figure out if there was some sort of defining factor that could help him notice the next time Frank was in such a bad mood. If he could pick up on Frank’s bad moods before he even told Gerard about them, he’d have more time to figure out how to fix them.
“Can you take tomorrow off?” Gerard asked.
“I shouldn’t.” Frank sighed, “The funding fell through for one of my bands who was supposed to tour Europe and I have to call all the venues...”“Couldn’t you do that here?” Gerard asked, “I mean, Mikey does stuff like that from the cabin all the time…”
“I only get so many paid days off per year…” Frank sighed, “I don’t know, man.”
“I’ll take the day off, too. We can play hooky.” Gerard pleaded.
“Okay. Maybe.” Frank yawned.
“It’s not a ‘no’ so I’ll take it.” Gerard said, sliding out from under the covers, “I’ll go e-mail my boss…”
Frank made a small, sad noise and rolled over into the spot where Gerard had been laying.
In the time it took him to finish putting together Frank’s midnight snack, put the rest of the bread away, and e-mail his boss, Frank had passed out. Gerard sighed and put the food in the fridge. He knew it wouldn’t be any good by morning. Just because he didn’t buy avocados often didn’t mean he was oblivious to the fact that they didn’t keep well.

Gerard thought he’d had Frank convinced to call out of work, but the next morning he found himself half-awake and arguing with Frank over why he should take the day off. It was too early to have to fight to pull his half-dressed un-boyfriend back into bed with him. He’d never meant someone so hell-bent on maintaining their boring desk job.
Of course, Gerard could be persuasive with his tongue without having to say a fucking word, which he swiftly reminded Frank of as soon as he’d gotten the guy horizontal. After lazy, sleepy, morning sex, Gerard insisted that Frank go back to sleep, because what he needed more than anything was to just sleep in for once.He’d gotten up to make them coffee, only to find that he was almost out. There was enough left for half of a pot, which Gerard immediately started brewing. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been almost out of coffee. He’d definitely never run out in the entire six years he’d lived in his current apartment. He couldn’t think of a time he’d ever run out.
Mikey had said the coming moon would be worse than usual and it was already starting to really fuck with Gerard. Clothes were just so uncomfortable when the moon started to pull him. This was perhaps the hardest thing to hide from Frank, especially since Frank was staying with him. He sometimes longed for the hour or so after sex where it was socially acceptable to remain undressed. As it was, he was standing in his kitchen completely naked as he sipped on his coffee reserves.
He was genuinely torn between enjoying the small window of time where Frank wouldn’t think he was weird for being naked and going out to the store to get more coffee.
Enjoying his freedom eventually won over his caffeine addiction when he remembered that Frank would probably be too stubborn to leave the apartment when he had work to do. If Gerard was out of coffee, Frank would have no choice but to go out for coffee with him.
Manipulative? Maybe.
Devious? Absolutely.
Gerard set aside a cup of his weakly brewed coffee for Frank and started on inking some pages of a comic he’d started drafting. When Frank finally woke up a few hours later, he dove right into making his boring, repetitive phone calls to his European labels, grumbling about the five hour time difference and business hours. He’d turned the living-room into a makeshift office. There were tables and scribbled notes all over the coffee table. Gerard didn’t understand how the phone calls couldn’t have waited for one day. Mostly he was completely horrified that Frank could work so efficiently with any coffee in his system. He could barely put words together without at least one cup.
Frank eyes lit up when Gerard eventually pushed the cup he’d set aside into Frank’s line of view. Perhaps the punk was much more exhausted than he cared to admit. He had his cell phone pressed to one ear as he was explaining the tour situation to yet another label in a bored tone. With the other hand he reached out for the mug, which Gerard pulled out of his reach with a smirk.
Frank sputtered and finished his phone call, death-glaring at Gerard every couple of seconds.
“Why?” Frank huffed, when he’d finally hung up. “It’s almost one. Let me take you out to lunch.” Gerard said.
“Gerard, you know I’d love to, but I’m in the middle of something.” Frank groaned.
“Just coffee then?” Gerard asked.
“I really can’t.” Frank sighed.
“I’m out of coffee,” Gerard explained, “Will you just walk with me to get some more?
“In the dead of winter?” Frank tutted, lifting himself up away from his work. “You’re lucky you’re cute...”

The following day when Gerard was on his way home from work he went and got a set of his apartment keys copied for Frank. He felt awkward and fidgety the entire time the store attendant was making the copies.
It wasn’t weird to give Frank keys to his apartment, was it? It was just to suit their temporary living situation so that Frank could come and go as he pleased without having to coordinate it with Gerard. That wasn’t weird. Gerard thought about calling Mikey to ask if it was weird, but he could already hear his brother’s cruel laugh.
Gerard could feel the weight of the second set of keys in his coat pocket the entire way home. Even after he got home, he was overly aware of their presence. He hadn’t figured out how he was going to give them to Frank. He’d more or less rehearsed a dozen different things he could say when he handed them over, but everything he’d come up with sounded too, well, rehearsed.
Gerard was staring at the keys in the palm of his hand when he heard the intercom buzz. He felt his stomach drop as he flew over to push the button to let Frank into the building. He waited by his apartment door as he waited for Frank to make his way up the stairs.
He swung the door open when he heard Frank’s footsteps in the hallway and, out of nervousness, grabbed him and kissed him the second he was in sight. Frank made a small, surprised sound as Gerard crushed their lips together.
“Hi Frank.” Gerard said, pulling away slowly.
“Um, hi, Gerard?” Frank grinned, leaning forward to kiss Gerard again.
As Frank kissed him slowly and sweetly, Gerard started to freak out over the fact that he was still holding the keys in his hand. If he handed Frank the keys now it would be awkward and he’d have to explain to Frank why he’d kissed him first. This was all his own fault he supposed. He tried to covertly slide the small jingly things into his back pocket without Frank noticing.
Gerard pulled him inside and shut the door behind them, taking Frank’s bag and helping him out of his coat.
“What’s gotten into you?” Frank asked as Gerard was pushing him against the wall and trailing sloppy kisses down his neck.
“Oh. I uh, I’m not sure.” Gerard mumbled, pulling away to look at Frank. The second their eyes met he felt himself blush like crazy.
“I mean I don’t mind. At all.” Frank amended, shooting him a small smile, “It’s just that usually you wait for me to like, get in the door before you start to…”
“Sorry.” Gerard mumbled.
“Don’t apologize.” Frank said, “It’s nice to feel wanted.”
“I make you feel wanted, huh?” Gerard flirted.
“Yeah.” Frank nodded, “Like, all the time.”
Now Gerard would really have to wait to give Frank his keys…
They ended up on the couch, kissing and talking with the TV on quietly. Gerard was still painfully overly aware of the set of keys in his back pocket. They stopped talking when they both got wrapped up in some stupid action movie. Frank kept chuckling at the cheesiness of the gore.
“Uh, so Frank…” Gerard started, during a commercial break. Things had cooled down between them and he had seemingly regained enough control over his heartbeat to explain things to Frank is a calm, collected way.
“Yeah, Gerard?” Frank echoed, glancing over at Gerard.
Gerard felt his heart jump into his throat when their eyes locked. He was the one with supernatural qualities, so shouldn’t he have been the one to be able to make a person seize up with just one look?
“Nothing.” Gerard offered.
“No, what?” Frank asked, “What were you gonna say?”
“I uh, it’s nothing really.” Gerard mumbled.
“That’s not fair.” Frank groaned, leaning over to rest his head in Gerard’s lap.
“It can wait.” Gerard argued.
“If it’s nothing then just tell me.” Frank teased, gazing up at Gerard.
Gerard just let out a deep sigh, feeling the words on the tip of his tongue.
“Fine. I’ll wait.” Frank said. “But you know you can tell me anything. You’ve seen me fucking cry. Come on, Gerard, this is like, friendship 101...”
In spite of Frank’s efforts in persuasion, they watched the rest of the terrible action movie in silence. Eventually Frank sat up and mumbled something about going to sleep. Gerard wanted to follow him but he was too frozen with awkward fear to get off the couch.
“I’ll be in in a little bit.” Gerard said.
“Alright dude.” Frank yawned.
Two hours later and Gerard was still on the couch, hating himself. He’d made everything so awkward. There was no way to give Frank the copy of the keys in a way that wouldn’t be awkward. The second Gerard handed them over Frank would know it was why he’d been acting weird. They were still in his back pocket. He could feel them like the fucking tell-tale heart or some shit.
Gerard considered just throwing them in the trash and forgetting about the whole thing. They’d only cost him a few dollars and he hadn’t even told Mikey about it. Nobody had to know, nobody had to get hurt.
Then an idea hit him… He could just leave them on the kitchen counter with a note for Frank to find in the morning. His house guest would still probably know that it was why he’d been acting so weird, but this way Gerard would never have to see the look on his face. Hit with sudden inspiration, he reached for one of Frank’s notebooks that were sitting out on the coffee table and started drafting up a note:

‘frank, keys, gerard’
Nope. He tore the page out and crumpled it up. He gave it a second try:

‘frank, come and go as you like. -gerard.’
Hell no. The crumpled page joined the first on the floor.

‘F, won’t be home tomorrow night, here’s a copy of the keys so you can let yourself in, G’
Okay.
Okay. Yeah. He could leave that on his kitchen counter. The only problem was that he’d have to think of something to do the following night. He couldn’t say he wasn’t gonna be home and then… be home. Gerard was a creature of the night, he could find something to do.
He left the set of keys on top of his note on the kitchen counter where he thought Frank was most likely to see it. He stared at them hopelessly one last time, feeling a tiny jolt of nervousness, before turning off the lights in the kitchen and going to lay down beside Frank.

When Gerard had woken up the next morning and gone into the kitchen to start on coffee, the keys were gone. Frank had drawn a smiley face on the note.
Gerard made dinner plans with Mikey for the night and stumbled into the apartment well after one to find Frank already asleep. Frank never mentioned the keys. He also never brought up Gerard’s poorly fumbled conversation from the night before. It was swept under the rug, with the laundry list of other things that Gerard was starting to worry they’d never get to talking about.

Since Frank had a set of keys, he and Gerard fell into a strange, almost comfortable routine in the week or so that followed.
Gerard had never considered the benefits being with someone who worked all the time, but now that he was sort of living it, he wondered why he’d never thought of it before. As the days inched closer and closer to the full moon, Gerard was losing his fucking mind. With Frank gone until nine or ten in the evening most nights, he usually had a few hours to himself after he got home from his shifts at the art store to hang out naked, jack off 700 times, eat bloody meat products, or whatever else his heart desired. He could almost fake being a normal human man by the time Frank floated in from work, exhausted and spent.
The nights that Frank came home too tired for sex were the worst. Gerard would never pressure the guy into doing something he didn’t want to do. It was fine for Frank to not crave intimacy on a nightly basis. Gerard himself hadn’t had much of a sex drive before he’d been bitten. With all of that rationality in mind, Gerard’s physiology had other ideas. Frank’s smell sent his lust into burning overdrive. It was near-impossible to just sit quietly and talk about Frank’s day when all Gerard wanted was to grab Frank and swallow him whole.
It wasn’t like Gerard knew how to explain it either. ‘Sorry, I can’t focus on anything you’re saying. I want to fuck you or eat you so badly right now.’ was probably a bad way to start off the ‘hey, so i’m a fucking werewolf’ talk. Gerard had decided it was all just going to have to wait until Frank had his own place again. He’d tried to approach Frank about his feelings a few times, but it had felt too much like he was cornering the guy. He wanted the truth to come out naturally, when the time was right.Mikey had little advice for Gerard. He’d just told Gerard to make himself scarce when he was feeling particularly crazy. Gerard had tried to go on walks with headphones on in hopes the fresh air and music would clear his head, but between his hatred for clothes and the cold of winter, he rarely felt better by the time he got home. Usually when it got to be too much for Gerard, he’d excuse himself to take a shower. Sometimes he’d take a cold shower to try and tame himself, other times, when he was feeling hopeless, he’d just jack off enough to chill the fuck out.
All in all, Gerard thought he was doing a fucking fantastic job of hiding his symptoms from his house guest. Frank had commented that Gerard seemed more on-edge, and that he showered too much, but aside from that he seemed completely oblivious to what was going on...

Lycanthropy aside, Gerard loved this weird thing he had with Frank. They had the best fucking un-relationship an overworked tour manager and a werewolf could possibly have. Most mornings Frank hit the snooze button a few times to spend a little extra time laying in Gerard’s arms. And he always snuck back into the bedroom before he left to kiss Gerard goodbye.
Frank was always bringing weird records home for Gerard to listen to. Sometimes he just wanted to show Gerard the cover art. They liked some of the same bands, but Frank was way more into punk, while Gerard was mostly just into weird experimental music he’d picked up in art school and rock opera soundtracks. Album art was the common ground. It was a language they both could understand.
There were a few times that Frank asked Gerard if he’d ever considered designing show posters or band merch. Gerard had never even thought about it. Mikey had told him it was something he should try to get into, but Gerard had never known any bands in need of designs. Frank knew people like that. He wanted to introduce Gerard to them, if that was something Gerard wanted, too.
Frank had tried to pick up drawing after watching Gerard doodle on a few occasions when they were watching TV together. He’d quickly gotten frustrated and given up. Gerard still brought home different kinds of pens from his work to see if any of them inspired Frank to keep trying. When Gerard glanced at all the paperwork Frank had splayed out across the coffee table, sometimes he could see doodles in the margins of his notes. It was just little things. Ghosts, mostly. Cracked skulls. Little sad faces.

: (

It was a particularly icy day in February that it all went to hell.
Gerard had gotten out of bed when Frank got up for work, even though he wasn’t scheduled to go into work that day. He’d been inspired by a comic he’d been reading late into the night and wanted to make a pot of coffee and spend the day drawing.
He was standing in the kitchen, watching the coffee put hiccup, when he heard Frank’s Vans scuff the linoleum flooring beside him.
“Morning.” he mumbled pathetically, turning to plant a sleepy kiss on Frank’s forehead.
“Morning...” Frank echoed.
After a few seconds, Gerard realized Frank was just standing there instead of getting ready for work.
“Uh, what’s up, Frank?” Gerard asked.
“Um, Gerard, what are you doing later?” He shot out, brushing his bangs out of his face.
“No plans?” Gerard shrugged.
“Cool. Uh, listen, I was gonna wait until I wasn’t crashing here anymore but like… Well, I was just wondering…” Frank mumbled on, fidgeting with the zipper on his sweatshirt.
“See, like…” Frank faltered, “If you’re not doing anything, and I’m not doing anything, we could do something, y’know, like, together.”
“Sure?” Gerard said, swallowing hard, “What were you thinking?”
“Well, like, would you wanna maybe… have dinner with me?” Frank sputtered on hesitantly. His cheeks were turning pinker with every word that escaped his lips.
“Oh…” Gerard breathed, quickly realizing that Frank was fucking asking him out, “Uh, y-yeah. I would.”
“Cool.” Frank nodded, smiling nervously, “It’s a date then?”
“Yeah…” Gerard nodded. He sort of wanted Frank to punch him in the face just so he could verify that he wasn’t dreaming. Instead, Frank leaned forward and planted a kiss against Gerard’s lips.
“Cool.” Frank repeated, “Well, I gotta get to work but there’s somewhere I wanted to take you so... I’ll text you the address…”
Gerard was too stunned to move. He watched as Frank shrugged into his coat and headed for the door, turning to smile at Gerard before disappearing out the door.

Gerard’s plans to spend the morning sketching character designs were officially ruined. He spent the first hour Frank was away contemplating every word that had been said. He wanted to call Mikey and tell him that him and Frank were no longer just friends, they were friends with dinner plans. Gerard, being a creature of the night, was quite superstitious and feared that if he called the younger way to tell him the good news, he would jynx the entire situation.
Gerard spent the better part of his day dealing with the pre-transition side-effects. He lost count of the number of times he jacked off. He fried and consumed half a pound of bacon without any clothes on. He showered twice.
Frank had texted him an address, and Gerard was torn on whether or not he should look the place up. He really wanted to know where Frank wanted to take him, but he also wanted to be surprised. If Frank was nervous, the place must’ve been thoughtful. Gerard decided he didn’t want to know ahead of time.
The only problem was that he wasn’t sure what the fuck to wear if he didn’t know where they were going. He settled on something tight and all black, reasoning that anything he wore would be buried under his coat anyways. Frank wouldn’t be stopping back at the apartment to change, and he’d been in a button down shirt and jeans when he’d left, so Gerard wasn’t worried about having to dress up too fancy.
He almost lost track of time straightening out his room. He checked to make sure there were condoms and lube in easy reaching distance, on the likely chance their date went well.
Gerard wasn’t going to leave anything up to chance. The full moon may have been less than two weeks out, but he was not going to fuck things up again.
By the time he left his apartment, a light rain had set in. Gerard pulled his hood up and trudged through the damp streets on the way to the subway. He’d left much earlier than necessary because there was no way in hell he could be late.
In retrospect, it was probably good he left early. As he rode the train downtown, he thought it was odd that so many of the people around him were holding bouquets and balloons. He thought nothing of it as he stared into the red petals of a dozen red roses under some guy’s arm. It still hadn’t occurred to him, even when a little girl with a giant teddy bear sat down on the bench across from him.
In fact, it didn’t occur to him until he stopped into a corner store to pick up a pack of cigarettes and saw the assorted heart-shaped chocolate boxes to the right of the cash register. He pulled out his phone in horror to check the date and sure enough….

It was fucking Valentines Day.

Notes

idek what the highlight of this update is TBH.................

• 'friendship 101'
• all that fucking fluff that just happened!?!?!?!?!?!?
• 'trash dungeon'
• They had the best fucking un-relationship an overworked tour manager and a werewolf could possibly have.

• 'fucking valentines day'

now before you start yelling at me over this cliffhanger, i will let you in on a little secret: this particular cliffhanger was written into the original plot layout i wrote for this fic 384723948723 years ago.

sorry for the delay in updating though!! i've been slower to write this fic cause i don't ever want it to end. hope this was enough fluff for everyone before it all goes to hell.
(will calmly remind you i only write happy endings <3)

-m