Zodiac

Gerard awoke the next day to a pounding headache. Like, nearly worse than any hangover he’s ever had, and that was saying something, cause he’s had some fucking horrible hangovers. Mikey even seemed to notice how shitty he was feeling when wondered aloud to Pete, “How much do you think he drank?”
“I didn’t.” Gerard called out as he buttered his toast. Mikey looked back at him from his spot at the table with a concerned expression. “Are you sure?” he asked, “You seemed really out of it last night.” Gerard shook his head then flinched at the flair of pain that shot through his head.
The headache continued through the rest of the day until Gerard managed to pull himself out of his bed and take a shower so he could go see Frank. The pain started to dissipate as he showered and by the time he reached the record store, it was completely gone.
He, like the day before, had waited until right before the shop closed. When he entered, Frank was ringing up, what seemed to be the last customer. His aura immediately brightened when he saw Gerard walk in.
Frank quickly finished with the customer while Gerard stood near the door trying not to look like a weirdo. When the customer passed by him to leave the store, they offered Gerard a kind smile which Gerard struggled to return.
“Can you lock that for me?” Frank’s voice rang out from across the store, startling Gerard. “The door, I mean. It’s the little knob above the handle.” Gerard nodded and hastily turned the knob until he heard a small click. He assumed that meant the door was locked. He sucked in a deep breath before turning and walking, as casually as he could, to the counter.
Gerard gave Frank a small wave as he took in the familiar shimmering blue light surrounding his body. It never got old.
“How’ve you been?” Frank asked as Gerard reached the counter. Gerard opened his mouth and then quickly clamped it shut, unsure of how to answer. It had only been a day since he’d seen Frank and he’d spent most of that day in bed. What was he supposed to say? He hated small talk.
“I, uh…” he forced out a cough in an attempt to hide his discomfort. “Okay? I mean I’ve had this shitty headache all day but that’s really it.” Frank’s eyes widened and his forehead creased in worry. Shit.
“Are you okay?” he asked Gerard, “I’ve got some aspirin in the back room if you need some.” Gerard quickly shook his head.
“I’m fine. It’s gone now.” He explained. “Don’t worry.”
Frank stared at Gerard for a few seconds, still clearly concerned, before he smiled and looked down at the counter.
“Okay, if you’re sure.” Frank mumbled letting out a short chuckle.
Things fell quiet between the two of them and Gerard felt his palms starting to sweat. He didn’t know what to say or if he was even supposed to say anything at all. Thankfully, Frank finally cleared his throat and looked back up at Gerard.
“Hey, so um, I need to ask you something kinda weird.” He said and Gerard felt his heart crawl up to his throat.
This was going to be it. Frank was going to ask why Gerard had been coming to the shop every day. Gerard was going to have to reveal his embarrassing lack of powers. Frank was going to think he was crazy or something. Tell Gerard to leave him alone, maybe he would even get a restraining order against hi-
“Do you maybe wanna go out on a date with me?” Frank blurted out. Gerard blinked at him, trying to comprehend what he’d said.
“Huh?” he finally whispered after a good minute.
“I mean, I’ve liked you for a while,” Frank was explaining, “You’re like ridiculously attractive and from what I’ve been able to figure out you’ve got like the sweetest personality and I’d at least like to get to know you more. But you can say no if you want to, it’s totally okay.”
Frank was wringing his hands and Gerard was sure he was just gawking at him like a dumbass. But, considering what Frank had just said, it was kind of understandable.
Frank found him attractive? Him? And he wanted to get to know him more? The weird guy who came to his store and watched him like a stalker? What was Gerard supposed to say to that?
Of course, Gerard would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about Frank like that at least once, but he always wrote it off as his feelings being contorted by this whole aura dilemma. He didn’t want to hurt Frank if that was really just the case. On the other hand, if his feelings really were sincere, then Gerard would be missing out on this opportunity if he turned Frank down.
Frank suddenly huffed out another chuckle and let his hands fall to his side.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve done this. I probably sound really awkward.” He said before bringing a hand up to scratch at the back of his neck. “But, really Gerard, you don’t have to say yes. It’s not a big deal. I mean, I don’t even know if you’re into guys much less-“
“No.” Gerard cut him off. “I mean yeah, I’m down for a date.” Frank’s eyes lit up and his aura shone impossibly brighter. Gerard bit back a grin.
“Oh, fuck yeah! That’s great! Thank you!” Frank exclaimed. “Shit, we’ve gotta start planning this. Um, I know a nice vegetarian restaurant not far from here, if that’s cool with you.”
Before Gerard knew it, Frank was walking him to his car. Plans had been made to meet at the record shop in two days at 4:30. There was a text in his phone from Frank, so they had each other’s numbers.
Gerard smiled as Frank waved him goodbye as he walked back toward the shop, having to finish up a few things before going home. Gerard closed his car door and started pulling out of his parking spot so he could get home, feeling genuinely calm and happy for the first time in a while.

That lasted up until the afternoon of the day of his date when he realized he had no idea what to wear.
“Dude, it’s not that serious. You don’t need to wear a fucking button up.” Mikey was saying as he forced the offending clothing out of Gerard’s grip. Gerard had enlisted his brother’s help in the matter.
“What if it’s like some super fancy place? I’m gonna look stupid if I show up in some ratty outfit.” Mikey sighed and ran a hand over his face.
“Okay A,” he explained exasperated, “The restaurant he’s taking you isn’t a place you’d wear a tux, okay? It’s like a hipster hangout spot. B, I know for a fact you have casual clothes that aren’t ‘ratty,’ so calm down.”
A drawer on Gerard’s dresser slid open and a few pair of jeans flew out and landed on Gerard’s bed in a somewhat neat pile. Mikey brought out a pair from the bottom of the drawer and unfolded it midair and hovered it in front of Gerard.
“Do these fit?” he asked. Gerard nodded and grabbed the jeans out of the air. They were probably one of his only pairs that weren’t ripped in the knees or stained with paint.
“Go through your shirts,” Mikey instructed already turning around and opening the bedroom door. “You’ll be fine with an old band tee or just a plain shirt.”
He started to walk through the open frame when Gerard called out to him.
“Wait, I’m not done!”
“I am.” Mikey responded.
“W-wait!” Gerard sputtered as he ran forward and grabbed Mikey’s arm. “Mikey, what’s your deal?” he asked feeling slightly betrayed. Mikey sighed again and shook Gerard off of him.
“Are you sure about this whole thing Gerard?” Mikey questioned him for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Gerard groaned.
“For God’s sake!” he exclaimed. “Yes! I’m one hundred percent positive! Why do you keep asking me that?”
Mikey threw his hands up in what he seemed to think was defeat and sighed yet again.
“Gerard, you barely know the guy!” he said sounding exasperated. “You don’t know anything about him past his name and music preference. You don’t even know his sign. You still haven’t told him about your powers.” Mikey stopped to rub at his eyes and blow out an annoyed breath. “God, just a week ago we were all convinced he thought you were stalking him and now he’s asking you on a date. Doesn’t that seem at least a little suspicious to you? I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
Gerard rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna get hurt.” He said stepping back into his room so he could open his shirt drawer and start shuffling through it. “You’re right. I don’t know Frank very well. So, it’s not like I’m madly in love with him and will get all depressed and shit if things end up not working out.”
“Then why haven’t you told him about your powers yet?” Mikey asked. Gerard looked back at his brother who was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest and an accusing look on his face. Gerard sighed.
“It’s not like I’ve been avoiding it,” he explained. “Things just happened, and I haven’t gotten a chance.” Mikey pursed his lips and nodded.
“And what happened that made it to where you couldn’t tell him three days ago?” he asked. Gerard stared at him for a second as he tried to remember exactly what happened that night because it was still a little hazy.
“He told me I had to leave because it was closing time.” The words sounded like rehearsed lines someone had fed to him, but it was all Gerard could come up with. Mikey shook his head.
“No, he didn’t.” Gerard recoiled in confusion.
“What the hell are you talking about? You weren’t even there.”
“It was on the news a few nights ago.” Mikey explained. “There was a robbery at Frank’s shop. It happened right before closing time. He incapacitated them both.”
Gerard was sure he didn’t experience what Mikey was explaining but for some reason it seemed familiar. His headache was starting to come back. He shook his head in an attempt to make it and the confusion go away.
“What does that have to do with this?” he asked. “If it happened, it happened after I left.” Mikey shook his head again.
“If he kicked you out because he had to close the shop, wouldn’t he have locked the door behind you? There weren’t any signs of forced entry. Besides, they said it happened before closing time, which means it would have happened before you left.” Mikey sighed for the literal umpteenth time and shrugged. “I just think it’s a little odd that that happened the same night and supposedly almost the same time you were there that you came home acting all weird and fucked up.”
Mikey backed out of Gerard’s room and turned down the hallway.
“Don’t you?”

Gerard pulled into the parking lot of Frank’s record store and forced Mikey’s words, which were rattling around in his brain, to settle down. He turned the car off and released his seat belt before opening the door and stepping out.
Frank was sitting on the hood of his car, a cigarette in between his fingers. His aura was shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. Gerard padded up to him with a smile on his face. Frank grinned back as he blew out a cloud of smoke before he flicked the butt onto the ground, his foot crushing it as he slid off the hood of his car.
“Hey Gerard.” Frank said.
“Hi,” Gerard returned the greeting with a small wave.
“How are you?”
“I’m good. You?”
”Fine.”
They fell silent. Gerard hoped Frank couldn’t hear his heart thumping in his chest. Again, Gerard hated small talk.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Frank exclaimed after a few seconds of awkward silence. “I have something for you.” Frank stepped over to the passenger door of his car and opened it up, leaning down to pick something up from the seat. He turned around, revealing the Bowie record Gerard had been on edge of buying for the past month.
“The shipment got in this morning.” Frank was explaining, “It’s like ridiculously early.”
Gerard was reaching for his wallet when Frank started shaking his head.
“Nope.” He said. “It’s on me, don’t worry about it.” Gerard scrunched up his face in displeasure. He felt guilty.
“Gerard,” Frank cut him off before he could even say anything. “It’s a gift. You don’t need to pay me for it.” Gerard sighed and slid his wallet back into his back pocket.
“I’m paying for dinner though.” He said as he took the record from Frank’s hands and stepped back so he could put it in his car.
“Ready to go?” Frank asked as Gerard closed the door. Gerard nodded and Frank started off across the parking lot, beckoning for Gerard to follow. “It’s close enough for us to walk. Come on!”

“Wait, so, your brother is dating the bassist of Fall Out Boy?” Gerard nodded. Frank looked appalled. The two of them were sitting at a small table in some vegetarian restaurant Frank claimed to frequent, waiting for their salads to come out.
“How does something like that even happen?” Frank asked incredulously. Gerard chuckled. Okay maybe he thought it was a little cool that people geeked when they found out Mikey was dating Pete Wentz.
“I don’t really know actually, he and Mikey met at some bar after a show and next thing we know he’s moving in. I’m honestly surprised one of them hasn’t proposed yet.” Frank blew out a choked off chuckle and reached for his glass of water.
Gerard grinned down at his lap. He was honestly having more fun than he had expected. The restaurant was nice for how cramped it was, and Frank seemed like a super chill guy. He was cute and funny as hell and obviously super sweet. They’d spent the entirety of their date thus far in high spirits. At that point, Gerard could see the whole thing working out. The topic of his powers had completely faded to the back of his mind.
A waitress came by and dropped off their plates. Gerard’s salad looked even better than the picture in the menu. The pair quickly began to eat.
“Well I mean, I don’t know anyone super famous like Pete Wentz, but my friend Bert is in this band called The Used.” Frank was saying through bites of lettuce. “They’re playing at one of the venues close by next weekend if you wanted to come.” Gerard giggled.
“Is this your way of asking me on another date?”
“Absolutely.”
He laughed again. God, Gerard hadn’t laughed this much in a while. Not since Ray asked him to listen to some new songs he’d written while practicing his powers. It was exhilarating. He looked up and noticed Frank was smiling at him fondly. He grinned back.
“So,” he stated. “I’ve told you all this stuff about me. It’s your turn. Tell me about yourself. I don’t even think I know what your sign is.” And just like that, Frank’s smile was gone. He shrank away from Gerard and stared down at his lap for a moment before speaking.
“And this is the part where it all goes to shit.” Frank said while bringing his hand up to scratch at his neck, just behind the scorpion inked into his skin.
Scorpion…
Then everything clicked.
“Oh my god you knew.” Gerard blurted out. Frank’s head shot up and he stared at Gerard, guilt and regret all over his face. Gerard was too angry to care. “You knew about my powers the whole fucking time because you’ve been reading my mind!”
“Shh, Gerard, please you’re going to cause a panic!” And Gerard nearly leaped out of his seat because holy fuck that was Frank’s voice in his head.
“Dude, what the fuck!” Gerard thought at him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a Scorpio?”
“You know how people are with telepaths,” Frank thought back. “They fuckin’ hate us ‘cause they can’t stand the thought of us in their head. I didn’t know if you were gonna be the same way. And clearly, you’re one of those kinds of people.”
Gerard squinted at Frank and sent across the best are you fucking kidding me emotion he could muster.
Gerard did in fact know about the stigma a lot of people had against Scorpios and their telepathic powers. However, he didn’t feel the same hatred as those people. Those people were the ones that would like, try to write to Congress about banning getting pregnant during the months required to conceive a Scorpio baby. Sure, Gerard got ticked off when random telepaths were in his head without his permission or knowledge, but he wasn’t that much of an asshole.
“For your information, I’m not like that.” Gerard argued. “I’m not mad that you’re a Scorpio. I’m mad that you’ve known for a whole month about my powers and you’ve said nothing.”
“I know that!” Frank even threw up his hands and everything until a group at a nearby table looked over at him curiously and he settled back down, staring at Gerard intently.
“I tried to stay out of your head past the compulsory making sure you weren’t trying to rob me check, but god Gerard, you think so loud and it’s fucking hard to ignore you sometimes. Especially when it’s me you’re thinking about. And I wanted to get to know you better, but you weren’t talking to me at all so what else was I supposed to do?”
Frank gave Gerard a pointed glare.
“Besides, it’s not fair for you to get mad at me about this. When were you going to tell me about your shit?”
Gerard recoiled in anger. Frank immediately averts his eyes, his expression softening with guilt.
“I didn’t-“
“You’re an asshole.” Gerard spat. “You cannot sit here and blame me over this when you’ve known for a month. You could have said something. A single “hey, I’m a Scorpio and I overheard your thoughts about me being the first aura you’ve ever seen” would have sufficed rather than letting me sit there for a month, looking like an asshole, with everyone wondering when you were going to call the cops on me for ‘stalking’ you!”
Frank sat quietly staring at the table for a moment before he answered, his voice low and guilt ridden in Gerard’s head.
“I’m know. I’m sorry. That was really, really shitty…”
Frank trailed off, still frowning at the tabletop. Gerard didn’t have anything else he wanted to say to Frank, so he sat back in his chair and waited for their server to bring them their bill.
He asked for separate checks.

The walk back to the record store was awkward to say the least. Gerard had originally intended to ditch Frank as soon as they left the restaurant, however, his car happened to still be at the record store as well, so he settled for shuffling along silently next to Frank.
They were almost back to the record store when Gerard felt Frank poking at the edge of his consciousness, seemingly trying to get his attention. He huffed out a sigh and glanced over at Frank who seemed to be trying to make himself as small as possible with his arms wrapping tightly around his chest and his back hunched over.
“What?” Gerard asked annoyed.
“Look,” Frank mumbled. “I know our date ended up kinda… okay no, really shitty at the end, and I guess you and I probably won’t work out. But, if you wanted, the offer to come to my friend’s show next weekend is still open… As friends, I mean.”
Gerard bit the inside of his cheek as he thought. He knew he should turn Frank down immediately, tell the guy to fuck off, and pretend the past month of his life hadn’t happened, but something was holding him back. Maybe it was that apart from their argument, he had enjoyed spending time with Frank, or maybe it was just the attachment he felt toward his aura. He wasn’t sure.
“I’ll think about it.” Gerard finally answered as they finally reached parking lot. The lack of a certain negative answer seemed to perk Frank up, just a little.
“Great!” he said, offering Gerard a small smile. “You have my number. Let me know.”
And with that Frank gave Gerard a little wave as he headed for the front door of the record store.
“I’ll see you around, Gerard.” He said as he pulled the keys out of his back pocket.
“Yeah…” Gerard mumbled as he made his way to his car. He pulled the keys out and unlocked the car, opened the door, and all but flung himself into the driver’s seat.
He watched as Frank got the door of the shop open and slipped inside, his aura dull and faded around him. He shook his head and shoved the key in the ignition.
As he turned the car on, he looked over and noticed the Bowie vinyl Frank had given him sitting in the passenger seat beside him. Earlier he’d been grateful for it, impressed by Frank’s thoughtfulness. Now, it just made him uncomfortable.
He grabbed the vinyl and leaned back, depositing it in the back seat, before he pulled out of the parking lot and sped home.

Notes

I know no one's gonna see this unless they've subscribed to the story since the algorithm on this site got fucked but yay here's an update!

Song Of The Moment: Ode to Sleep - Twenty One Pilots