Surrender The Night (Frerard)

Brendon, as it turned out, had a boyfriend. His name was Ryan Ross, he was sixteen years old, and they had been together for about a year. As soon as Frank propositioned Brendon, the boy had told his boyfriend everything and, whilst Ryan had agreed to it all, they had mutually decided that Brendon would not kiss Frank.

Brendon explained all this to Frank and Ray in a very long and rambling text message sent approximately half an hour after the fiasco at school. It hadn't crossed Frank's mind that Brendon might actually have a reason for not kissing him, but now he thought about it, it did make sense. He sent a reply telling the guy to "calm the fuck down", and that he hoped he hadn't screwed anything up between Brendon and his boyfriend. He was still waiting on a response.

Frank himself had some explaining to do. There was no doubt in anyone's mind what relationship Frank and Gerard had had now - even an idiot could see there was something more than teacher-student relationship going on there and, despite what Frank often said, Ray wasn't an idiot - and Frank's best friend deserved to know.

It started off reasonably well, with Frank telling Ray how he had stumbled across his teacher's house by accident whilst he was trying to escape a beating from a gang of drunken assholes, and how Gerard had been nice enough to let him in and take care of his injuries. When he got to what he referred to himself as 'the classroom scene', he blushed and then, then he may have missed a few details out. It didn't matter either way.

Ray got the idea.

When Frank thought before about telling his best friend about his illegal relationship, he had pictured it going one of two ways: either Ray would be disgusted with him, out him to the school and get Gerard fired, or he would be ridiculously interested in the whole thing and demand that Frank allow him to blackmail an A out of Gerard. Neither were ideal, but the latter was definitely preferable to Frank.

Not that it mattered now, anyway, but Ray's reaction was a lot closer to the latter than it was to the former.

"Dude, and you didn't think to fucking tell me?! I prefer to be in the loop with my best friend's sex life, you know!" Ray bitched, all the while maintaining a trepidatious smile on his face. It was as if he didn't know how Frank wanted him to react and so he was purposefully playing it down. Frank appreciated that, even though it wasn't strictly necessary.

"Yeah well," Frank said, grinning ruefully even though he felt like curling in on himself and sleeping for days. Actually he felt like running over to Gerard's house and throwing himself at the man and telling him that all is forgiven and they can go back to normal now. He didn't, obviously.

"It's not like it matters now. It over, between us. Me and him, I mean. It's over." Frank sighed, trying not to let on how much the words affected him. This must be love, he thought, because why else would it feel like his heart was tearing itself to shreds inside his chest? All he could think was that Gerard lied to him, and Mikey lied to him, and they manipulated him and it was highly probable that none of their relationship had meant anything to the older man. That thought alone made Frank want to cry.

"Damn," Ray sighed, then grinned. He leaned forwards on his elbows, his hair tickling Frank's nose. "So… does this mean you banged your history teacher?"

Frank choked and went red, jerking away from Ray quickly.

"Asshole!" He cried, scrubbing his face with his hands to hide his blush. "You can't ask me that!"

Ray pouted childishly, even though that answer was pretty damning to Frank's virtue.

***

Gerard was a mess.

Since the scene at the school unfolded, Mikey had pretty much been living with his older brother, and the man was slowly driving him insane. It wasn't just that he never cleaned up after himself, that he never showered or that he left dirty laundry in the hamper for days on end. It wasn't even that he left take away boxes piled up on the coffee table in front of the TV - where he had kept up a permanent residence for the past few days - for so long that they were now completely obscuring any view of the television screen you could hope to have.

Worse than all of that was the fact that the man couldn't stop feeling so fucking sorry for himself.

In between his search for a take away restaurant he hadn't yet called and his constant moping, he would beg Mikey to visit Frank and find out how he was doing. Mikey tried explaining that there was no way in hell that was happening, but Gerard just didn't understand why. The younger man thought it may have been detrimental to his brother's mental health to explain that since they both lied to the boy and essentially pressured him into being in a relationship with his teacher, neither of them would be Frank's favourite person any time soon.

Mikey didn't know how much more of Gerard's behaviour he could take, and he fucking had it up to here with his brother crying out, "he hates me!" It was a vicious cycle: Gerard would think about his ruined relationship and get sad, order take away and watch horror movies until he was reminded of how he and Frank got together in the first place and then he would get upset again.

They could not go on like this much longer. Mikey was going to kill someone if it did.

"Get up." Mikey ordered, kicking at his older brother with his toe. "Now."

Gerard groaned and muttered something inaudible. He turned over onto his back to stare up at Mikey with a blank expression, unmoving until he got prodded by Mikey's foot again.

"Get up!" Mikey persisted, continuing adamantly until Gerard complied. "If you can't get over him, which you obviously can't, them you're going to have to get him back. I can't stand to see you moping and pining over a fucking high school boy. It's sickening."

"I can't, Mikey!" Gerard cried desolately. "You know what happened to him; he obviously doesn't want anything to do with me anymore."

"Yes, I know what happened Gerard." Mikey replied, his tone softer now. "I know, and it was awful. I know that; but I also know that he's better now, and you're not. You helped him when he needed it even though it lost you your job, so he needs to fucking be there's for you. And he just doesn't realise that, so he needs a helpful push in the right direction."

Gerard cocked an eyebrow doubtfully.

"And you think you can be that push?"

Mikey snorted, shaking his head. "Obviously not, asshole. You are. Now get the fuck up or I'll go for your balls next time."

He lifted his foot up and hovered them ominously over Gerard's crotch. That was enough persuasion necessary to get him up at out of the door with no more than a sigh of relief and a hasty, "go get him, Tiger," from his younger brother.

He had no idea how to get Frank back, but he had to start somewhere.

***

The boys startled when there was a knock at the door. They had fallen into a comfortable silence since Frank had explained everything to Ray, and the only sounds now were of the TV.
They had called for Chinese food, because neither of them could be bothered to cook something and Linda was out on a night shift again— after a few days off work taking care of Frank, she needed to go back or she would inevitably lose her job.

Ray clapped his hands together eagerly at the prospect of food and shoved Frank towards the door until he yelled that he was going in a resigned manner.

There was no one at the door.

He hadn't been expecting that, honestly, and the fact that he had gotten up for nothing pissed him off. He was tired and cranky and hungry and sore and this had turned out to be some neighbourhood kids playing a prank; he wasn't so not in the mood.

Then he looked down, and that's when he saw it.

It wasn't even in an envelope: just a folded piece of paper with his name written on the blank side and the dark ink bleeding jus about visible from the other side.

Frank's eyes widened and he lurched forward onto the doorstep, a vague sounding, "what the fuck," on his lips. If this was happening again, if someone was watching him again… but he couldn't see anybody, and he had a door and a lock on his side. Ray was right there, indoors, and whoever had left the letter had written freehand without taking any caution to hide their identity.

He snatched the letter up and slammed the door behind him, locking it for good measure. He shuffled back into the living room where Ray was sprawled out onto the floor. His friend looked up and pouted when he saw Frank without food.

"Where's dinner?" He asked pitifully.

"No one was there," Frank replied distractedly, unfolding the paper to read it. "There was a letter, with my name on it."

"Yeah, well there are some sweet and sour noodles coming with my name on them, so until they show up I'm too hungry to focus on reading."

"Asshole." Frank muttered, beginning to read under his breath.

I know I fucked up, and we might never be able to get back what we had. I regret lying to you so much, but what's done is done. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me.
Gerard

P.S. Mikey says sorry too. Just so you know.

Frank scoffed and let go, letting the paper flutter to the ground by Ray's head. He took the opportunity and picked it up, reading it curiously. His eyes lit up when he got to the bottom.

"Holy shit, Frank!" He cried gleefully. "Is this from your actual teacher boyfriend?!"

"Ex boyfriend." Frank muttered, pretending like the letter didn't make his heart hurt.

***

"How'd it go?" Mikey asked as soon as Gerard skulked through the front door, hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his hoodie. "Did you talk to him?"

"Shut the fuck up." Gerard snarled, brushing past him and heading for the kitchen. He needed coffee, like, now, even if it meant he wouldn't sleep at all tonight. It wasn't as if he had anywhere to be in the morning anyway; he could stay in bed as long as he wanted in the morning… sleeping, binge watching repeat episodes of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and mourning his lost relationship.

"I'm guessing that's a no?" Mikey shrugged. "No biggie. Next round will be easier; he might even listen to you this time."

"Next round?" Gerard repeated. "No. No, no, no, no, no. Not happening. I've embarrassed myself enough thanks to you, I'm not submitting myself to anymore of this."

Mikey rolled his eyes, and Gerard was reminded of when they were kids and how his younger brother was always the more responsible one. He was always the one who had the right answer and who knew what to do in any situation - even situations that included how to work the oven - and this time was no exception.

He sighed. "What do I have to do?"

Mikey smirked.

"I have a few ideas."

***

The next letter came in the post, so thankfully it didn't give Frank a panic attack. He didn't know whether to find it irritating or endearing that Gerard didn't want to show his face yet, and sending letters was quite cute. If Frank was into that. Which he wasn't anymore.

Frank,

I remember the first time I saw you. You were fourteen, I think, or fifteen. Shit, that makes me sound like a creep. It didn't start like that, I promise. You were waiting for one of your friends to leave my classroom and someone came along and called you a queer. You didn't do anything to him, you were just standing there minding your business, but he insulted you all the same.

I was about to step out of my classroom and yell at him, tell him off for using that word as an insult, but you caught my eye and shook your head. By that time he was already gone, but I couldn't stop thinking about you. You didn't even reply; that was how much what he said bothered you. You didn't let it get to you, and I was impressed. Then I go at you in my class two years later and I had completely forgotten it by then. I only remembered that the other day— I've been thinking about you a lot recently.

I miss you and I'm sorry.

Gerard

Linda looked up from where she was sat in the armchair next to Frank and said, "Why are you smiling?"

Frank shrugged. He didn't realise he had been.

***

Brendon was there the next time he received a letter. Ryan had been stressing out over his upcoming exams and Brendon had thought it was a good idea to get out of there before something got broken. They hadn't seen each other much at school lately and they had both agreed they needed to hang out.

So when an envelope fell through the letter box - a real envelope this time - Frank had to explain his whole sorry relationship to one of his friends for the second time. He started with That Night and ended with The Letters. Except this one wasn't a letter: it was a memory stick.

They rushed into Frank's bedroom and plugged the memory stick into his computer, waiting impatiently for it to load. Brendon thought the whole thing was very romcom-esque, and Frank wouldn't admit that he had come to look forward to Gerard's letters.

There was only one file on the memory stick: an audio file, so Frank turned on his speakers and clicked play. He was hoping it wasn't something embarrassing, because he didn't need something else for Brendon to hold against him, but luckily for both of them it was a piece of music.

There weren't any lyrics, and Frank didn't recognise it, but it was beautiful. Only a couple of minutes long, it had Brendon clutching his heart in a mocking, "aww" kind of way, and there may or may not have een tears welling in Frank's eyes, but that was beside the point.

This time, he didn't hide his smile.

***

"So are you finally getting through to him?" Mikey asked innocently, stirring a plastic spoon through his frozen yoghurt. "Are you winning back his heart?"

Gerard snuck a glance at his phone: no missed calls, no texts. He was disheartened, but he wasn't ready to admit defeat just yet.

***

It had been a week, and so far there had been no more letters. No more songs, no messages, no nothing. Absolutely no word from Gerard, and Frank was missing it. He couldn't believe he ever thought he could make it without Gerard.

He was dressed in batman pyjamas and his hair was messy when he heard the knock on the door. He half expected it to be his father who was supposed to be dropping by today, but if it was he would have been three hours early. He scowled and prepared to give whoever was on the other side of the door a piece of his befuddled, eight-in-the-morning mind. He wasn't expecting it to be Gerard.

He froze, his eyes wide and his fingers tightening around the door. Gerard looked equally as frightened, not knowing how Frank would react. He swallowed thickly, attempting a smile.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi." Frank said shortly, promptly forgetting how to speak.

"I'm sorry." Gerard told him earnestly, sounding so sad that Frank felt a pang in his chest. A slow smile spread across his face and he blushed, looking down at his bare feet before looking up at Gerard from under his eyelashes.

"I know." He replied. Gerard blinked and then smiled, just a little, just the corner of his mouth twitching up a little, but it was real and it was there and Frank felt whole again from having the man he loved so close to him again after spending so long apart.

"So," Gerard began, "I know this is going to sound crazy, but can I come in for a second?"

Frank took a big breath, exhaled, and smiled.

Notes

I'm a horrible person, I was meant to update this ageeessss ago, but here you are.
This is the LAST CHAPTER of Surrender The Night! Wow, it's been a long journey and I'm getting all emotional, but I hope you've enjoyed this and I hope you go on to read more of my stories ('cause I'm shallow like that and yes that was a shameless self promotion.)
I'm gonna go before I start crying.
Enjoy! <3