Frank’s POV
The six forty-five alarm shocks both Gerard and I awake. I sigh slightly, realising that we have school. At least I can spend the morning and maybe lunch with Gerard.
“Morning Gee,” I whisper softly.
“Morning Frankie,” he replies. “Do we really have to get up?” he groans.
I giggle. “Unfortunately.”

I untangle myself from his grasp and get out of bed. Then I whip open the curtains with a devilish smile.
“Up you get!” I singsong at him. He throws an arm over his eyes and groans again.
“Nooo!” he whines.

Laughing, I run over to him and grab both his arms. I haul him halfway out of bed so that his hair is touching the ground. He wraps his hands around my wrist. I gasp and pull them back, tears pricking my eyes. The cuts over my arm sting with a burning passion.Gerard jumps up properly and rushes over to me, afraid that he had hurt me. He pulls me into a hug, muttering apologies over and over again.

Without a sound he leans back and takes my arm without breaking eye contact; I let him slip the sleeve up to reveal the cuts I made last night.
“Frankie,” he breathes.
“I’m sorry Gee,” my throat begins to do that stupid thing where it closes up and renders speaking nearly impossible. The end of my sentence fades away because of this. Gerard and I stare at each other, my face crumpled and wilted and his confused.

Fuck, he’s going to leave me for sure now!

I yank my arm away from him and run to the bathroom where I lock myself in. I curl up into fetal position on the tile. I can’t even make tears fall properly so I just sit there, feeling all these emotions swelling up inside me like a high-tide and threatening to choke me with no way out. Gerard knocks lightly on the door. I let out a tiny, unintentionally strangled cry.

Finally I stand up on shaky knees and unlock the door. Gerard is pacing outside and instantly stops when he sees me. He’s only standing about a metre away from me but it feels too far. I fall into his arms, quite literally, and he catches me just in time. That’s when the tears start. I can’t seem to stop them but Gerard doesn’t mind, he just goes on trying to console me and hold me.

“A-are you going to l-leave me?” I hiccup.
“Frank, have you gone in-fucking-sane? Of course I’m not going to leave you. Why would you think that, darling?”

I pause, trying to gather enough composure to form proper words.

“I just…I hate myself, Gerard! And I cut because I can’t get a hold on my feelings and I feel worthless and scared and hopeless…How could you be with someone who hates their self?” It comes out as a desperate sounding cry.
“Because I love you, Frankie." What? "And I want to help you overcome this; I want to be with you to help you do that. I want to see that gorgeous smile every single day, I want to live with you and get married and have a kid if that’s what you want, and to-”

I cut Gerard off by pressing a bruising kiss to his lips.

“I love you too, Gerard.” Tears are still rushing down my face which feels stupid because I'm happy right now. Gerard starts crying too but I think they’re more joyful tears than sad ones.
“Jesus fucking Christ, look at us!” Gerard laugh-sobs. “We’re a mess and going to be late for class.”
“Yeah," I agree with a smile. "We should probably get changed then."

Mum looks shocked to see Gerard but then brings him into a hug. Lots of hugging this morning, I observe over my bowl of excessively sugared cereal.

She questions Gerard as to how he got here, whether his parents know where he is, whether he thinks he is safe, whether he’ll be staying. Luckily his parents have no idea where Gerard would have gone so he should be relatively okay. Mum insists that he stays with us, because then she knows that he’s protected.

Gerard pours a mug of coffee instead of having a proper breakfast. I shake the cereal box at him invitingly but he just smiles and raises his mug at me. After we finish our breakfast I check the time: 7:48. Shit, I curse under my breath. We're going to be late if we don't leave right now. I call out a rushed goodbye to Mum who is upstairs and drag Gerard to the door.

We hear a rushed clomping noise which I have grown to recognise as Mum coming down the stairs in her ridiculous heels. I pause with my hand on the door knob as she comes into view.
“I’ll drive you boys to school, it’s safer and quicker.” She says. Neither of us questions her, instead collecting our bags and climbing into the car.

Gerard’s bodyguard guy is waiting at the gates for him next to Mikey. I ask Mum to park away from the entrance so that he doesn’t see us getting out of the same car.
“I’ll see you at lunch, yeah?” I ask him.
“Okay. Text me something subtle when you’re ready.”

I smile at him and get out of the car first since I'm closest to the curb. Mum says goodbye to Gerard while I walk away, trying to put distance between us so it’s not as suspicious. Mikey catches my eye with a worried, questioning look as I walk through the gates. I nod my head briefly towards him. He relaxes a little, knowing that the gesture was meant to show that Gerard is fine. I head to homeroom from there, fretting over Gee’s safety and hoping all goes well today.

Notes

Sorry it took so long even though it's super short :/

- Run Bunny