My Lovenote has Gone Flat: Arc One (3/4)
Title: My Lovenote has Gone Flat: Arc One (3/4)
Author: freiheit_0308
Wordcount: 2795
Pairing(s): somewhat Frank/Gerard, hinted but not seen Ray/Mikey
Warning(s): Bad Language and Fluffyness
Notes: So yes this is part three of four but it's not the end of this universe. Just the beginning, I have a lot of things planned for this. This was beta-ed by: blondemonster
Disclaimer: I do not own these people. They are property of themselves or each other
Summary: Frank could pinpoint the exact date that everything changed.
Part Two
Frank could pinpoint the exact date that everything changed.
It began with a stupid dumb accident.
It wasn’t like it was even that serious, just him and Hambone acting like idiots. Then, there was a fall against the table and a crack that resounded.
Later, after coming home from the hospital Frank would tell himself that the only person to blame was himself, but now at this moment in time it was all he could do from cursing at Hambone for being a stupid idiot and jumping over the couch.
Hambone’s wrist was broken, it was a clean break so it would heal normally, and he would still be able to play without discomfort once he healed, but it was going to take two months in a cast three weeks in a brace and then two more months of physical therapy before that was even possible.
So basically they were fucked.
What Frank couldn’t get over was why did it have to happen now? Why now? When they had a record deal and were so close to actually touring? Why now?
Frank sat moodily on the sidewalk in front of his apartment and brooded into his third cigarette. He sighed tapping it against the side of his shoe to get rid of the excess ash, and sighed deep and troubled.
He heard some laughter that sounded familiar and the patter of footsteps before he saw three small shadows stop right in front of him.
He looked up to see the faces of Gerard and two of the three creepy kids that always seemed to hang around him. It seemed that Pete, the one who had that ridiculous crush on Mikey was missing today. Both Brendon and Ryan were standing a little ways away and turned towards each other as if they were having a conversation, when Frank knew fully well that they were planning to listen in on whatever he and Gerard talked about.
Gerard was standing there buried under his twenty scarves and Ray sized hoodie and he smiled at Frank from under his eyelashes which he freaking fluttered and he breathed out, "Hey Frankie."
Frank felt his gut clench without his permission. He took a drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke to the side half smiling at the kid, "Hey Gee, shouldn’t you be in school?"
There, Frank thought happily. He reestablished the line between adult and child. Gerard was still in school therefore a child, therefore Frank should not in anyway be attracted to him.
But then Gerard cut his eyes to the side and mumbled something about school being let out early and blushed so prettily that his cheeks flushed and Frank felt the urge to push down the scarves just to see how far down that blush went and damnit! He thought that he was over this.
Frank followed Gerard’s eyes as they followed his cigarette back to his mouth and fully grinned when Gerard watched him inhale the smoke.
He exhaled again this time, not making sure it didn’t wash over him and held out the half smoked cig, "Want to try it?"
Gerard’s eyes widened a bit and he nodded. But instead of taking the smoke out of Frank’s hands he pressed his lips over the bud from where it jutted between his middle and pointer finger and inhaled, his eyes on Frank’s the whole while.
It would’ve been sexy as hell if Gerard hadn’t begun coughing up a lung, because of course this was the kid’s first cigarette.
Frank smirked and leaned back against the steps leaving his jacket hanging open and exposing the strip of skin that showed whenever his shirt rode up.
He saw Gerard’s eyes follow his movement, his eyes straying and staying at his exposed stomach and Frank cursed himself because he was fucking flirting.
"Whoa," Gerard breathed, and before Frank could move, the kid was kneeling between his legs and his cold fingers were hovering above the swallows on his hips. "May I?"
Frank gulped and nodded because was this kid for real, asking him all polite and shit. He smoothed his fingers down the arch of the bird’s wing and then pulled his hand away. Frank pushed away the sweeping sensation that seemed to have taken over the clenching in his stomach and sat back up properly.
"You kids heading anywhere special?" he asked stressing the word kid and looking for all the world like someone who did not just let a fourteen year old kid brush his fingers across one of his most erogenous zones.
Not surprisingly it was Brendon who answered. Frank was actually surprised that he had kept quiet for so long, "We were actually heading over to the comic book store and then me and Ryan were going to the mall. Do you want to come with?"
Translation: Gee wanted to go to the comic book store, and Ryan and Brendon were going to ditch him and go to the mall, did Frank want to go so that Gee wasn’t left all by himself?
Although Frank was fairly sure that Gerard could take care of himself, he knew that Mikey would skin him alive for knowingly leaving Gee under the clutches of Gabe Saporta, Bill Beckett, and Travis McCoy, the three who surprisingly owned the only freaking comic book store in town. Not surprising was the fact that Travis used it as a cover to grow his own freaking garden of special herbs, one of those being pot and Frank was running low.
He stood up and flicked his cigarette to the side, "Let’s go."
It wasn’t surprising that Brendon kept a steady chatter all the way to the comic book store all about school and complaining that he wasn’t allowed after hours to play on the piano when the seniors could do it. Frank had smoked two more cigarettes walking right beside Gerard who was at an arms length away, and short enough that Frank had to bend his head a little just to see the side of his face.
He was so tiny, Frank mused. Under all those layers of clothing, he really was this little kid that Frank could probably lift off his feet if he tried hard enough. Gerard looked over at him then and caught him staring. Frank just grinned at him and sucked down the rest of his smoke before flicking the filter to the side and stuffing his hands down his pockets.
He never expected anything to really come from it. In his head he was doing Mikey a favor, keeping his brother company at the comic book store so that Gabe wouldn’t molest him. It was like if he was doing community service. With the plus of getting some good shit from Travis and getting the new Doom Patrol, it all worked out in his favor.
Finding out little Gee liked the same comics as he did was the creamy sweet icing on the already delicious cake. He spent two hours sitting with him on the floor of the store, ignoring Gabe’s lewd comments and Bill’s sly glances, just talking.
They had a lot of things in common. Not just with comics, but in movies and music, and Frank found himself a little fascinated by this kid who didn’t like showers and looked like if he needed to wash his hair, who liked old school monster movies and Audrey Hepburn, whose ambition in life was to become an artist. Not even a famous artist just an artist.
He looked at Frank from under his eye lashes and blushed a little, "That’s why I admire you so much Frankie. You get to do what you love to do and who gives a fuck if it doesn’t pay well as long as you’re doing it."
Frank gulped down at the sudden and terrifying swoop his stomach did at the way the word ‘fuck’ seemed to roll off of Gerard’s mouth. The pretty mouth that framed these pretty words carelessly and had been pressed against Frank’s a little over three weeks ago.
Frank could do it now too. He could push the little kid back against the book shelf that had been serving as their back rest and uncover him under all those layers. Push away all the scarves and jacket and check to see if his finger prints were still marked on his hips.
Frank shook his head and snapped out of it. He stood up and stretched. He realized that his shirt had risen up and was exposing the skin of his hips and belly again. He also realized that in some context this could be considered as flirting, but he didn’t think too much on it. He just offered Gerard his hand and pulled the kid to his feet.
He left without saying goodbye to Saporta or Beckett. Travis just dipped a nod in his direction from his spot by the door, and he actually pulled Gerard into a hug whispering something in his ear that made the kid blush and look at Frank.
Frank just shook his head and went out the door.
Gerard was right next to him in a few minutes cheeks still flushed and bag clutched to his chest. He gave Frank a shy smile and Frank felt around his jacket pockets for the pack of smokes. He needed to be doing something with his mouth and now before he really did push the kid against something and devoured him.
They walked in silence all the way to the Way household.
It started out innocently enough. At first, Frank still hung out with Mikey and doodled on Hambone’s cast and went to bars to get shit faced. The only difference was that he hung out with Gerard too. And not in the ‘oh Mikey is not here let’s hang out instead’ way, but more like he went to the Way house with specific plans to hang out with Gerard in the basement and watch scary movies.
Then, it was all Frank did. In between his brand new mediocre minimum wage salary job at the craft store and jamming on his guitar (in his room and in public sometimes), he visited Gerard. They played Nintendo and watched movies but mostly they talked a lot about things that Frank had never even told anyone.
On one particular night when Gee’s parents were fighting, Frank tucked him under his arm and ran one hand idly through his hair and told him about how he met Hambone that one night he snuck out of his parents house because they were fighting. He told him about how it tore him apart to come back home that night and see that his dad was packed and leaving and his mom was yelling at him to never come back.
Gerard had gripped him around his waist and had buried his face into his throat and had cried before falling asleep. Frank had left him there tucked into his side and laid his cheek on top of his head and closed his eyes.
He had woken up to see Mikey sitting down on the edge of the bed looking at him oddly. There was still shouting coming from upstairs so that meant that he hadn’t slept long. He smiled when he saw Frank had woken up and whispered, "Thank you."
Frank had just shrugged and pulled Gerard closer to his side of the bed leaving a space for Mikey. The elder Way crawled to the space between Gee and the wall and tucked himself right behind his brother wrapping one arm around Gee and tucking it in between his waist and Frank and the other was in Frank’s hair.
Frank had fallen asleep listening to the Ways softly breathing in synchronization and the dulling noises of shouting coming from the stairs.
Then, there was the night he went over to the Way’s house after being in a bar most of the night, and he had sneaked into Gerard’s basement through the window, because it was cracked just enough that he could slip in-between. And also he really did not want anyone else to know that he was sneaking into Gerard’s room.
He landed with a muffled thump on top of what had to be the Mt. Everest of dirty laundry. He fell three times into the stinky pile of clothes, before he finally managed to pull away with a shirt attached to his face.
He pulled the shirt off him and threw it back on the pile.
He took a deep breath and took in his surroundings.
The soft blue glow of the TV cast shadows over the usual piles of clothes, comic books and sketch pads. There were several canvases tilted against the walls that Frank remembered from two days ago when he lazed around in Gerard’s bed reading comics and watching movies while Gerard painted like a maniac and tore his hair out.
His eyes landed on the bed where Gerard was curled towards the edge, one of his hands hanging down barely brushing the pile of clean clothes that laid there.
As Frank stepped closer, he could see that there was a smudge of black ink down his cheek and another by his bottom lip. His head was cradled on top of his latest sketch pad, and Frank knew that if he lifted his head there would be spiral marks imprinted on his cheek. There was an array of pencils, markers, pens and colored pencils surrounding him.
So Mikey had obviously not come home yet.
He usually picked up around Gerard and tucked him into bed properly before going to sleep. Frank had been there to help countless of times before. He wondered for a second if Mikey was at Ray’s because he swore that he had seen him leave.
He shook his head before beginning to clean up around him. He put the pens and pencils in their cases and then as gently as possible began to pull the sketch pad from under Gee’s head.
The kid stirred and lifted his head. Frank tried not to yell in success and looked to see what Gerard had been drawing before he fell asleep.
Frank’s breath caught in his throat as he looked down at the colored version of him sleeping. It was actually different from the first one he’d seen. This one was obviously in Gerard’s bed because Frank did not have Wolverine sheets. The detail to his tattoo’s took his breath away.
He closed his eyes when he saw the colors swimming and blurring together only to feel a tear rolling down his cheek.
Frank thought it wasn’t fair. This was not fair. How could it be that the one person who saw him as something more than just a warm body for a night, or something more than that crazy singer from that crazy band be the one person that he was not allowed to have?
He set the book aside and looked at Gerard to see that the kid had his eyes open and was looking straight at Frank.
He kneeled up as Frank moved closer and reached out brushing at Frank’s tears with his thumb. Frank sighed shakily, and lifted his own hand to thumb at the black smudge below Gerard’s mouth. The kid’s mouth opened as he exhaled, and he closed his eyes as he turned and pressed a kiss on Frank’s thumb.
Frank closed his eyes and he was pretty sure that the breathy sigh that resounded the air was his.
He opened his eyes to see that Gerard was still watching him intently.
He wanted to kiss him, to push him back against his sheets and lay on him and kiss him forever.
But he really couldn’t.
So he did the next best thing.
He took his hand away from Gerard’s chin and gently pushed him back. There was something that looked like disappointment in Gerard’s eyes, but he crawled under the covers willingly.
He looked at Frank questioningly and Frank pulled off his shoes before laying on top of the covers and making a motion for Gerard to move closer.
The kid did and laid his head on Frank’s shoulder. Frank wrapped his arms around him and exhaled feeling whole for once.
Gerard turned his head so that his mouth was at Frank’s ear and he said, "I love you Frankie."
Frank shut his eyes and tightened his grip on the kid. It was sometimes so easy to forget that Gerard fourteen. He waited until Gerard’s breathing evened out before whispering, "I wish I could love you too."
He fell asleep holding on tight, with Gerard’s breath in his ear and those four little words echoing in his brain.
Part Four
Author: freiheit_0308
Wordcount: 2795
Pairing(s): somewhat Frank/Gerard, hinted but not seen Ray/Mikey
Warning(s): Bad Language and Fluffyness
Notes: So yes this is part three of four but it's not the end of this universe. Just the beginning, I have a lot of things planned for this. This was beta-ed by: blondemonster
Disclaimer: I do not own these people. They are property of themselves or each other
Summary: Frank could pinpoint the exact date that everything changed.
Part Two
Frank could pinpoint the exact date that everything changed.
It began with a stupid dumb accident.
It wasn’t like it was even that serious, just him and Hambone acting like idiots. Then, there was a fall against the table and a crack that resounded.
Later, after coming home from the hospital Frank would tell himself that the only person to blame was himself, but now at this moment in time it was all he could do from cursing at Hambone for being a stupid idiot and jumping over the couch.
Hambone’s wrist was broken, it was a clean break so it would heal normally, and he would still be able to play without discomfort once he healed, but it was going to take two months in a cast three weeks in a brace and then two more months of physical therapy before that was even possible.
So basically they were fucked.
What Frank couldn’t get over was why did it have to happen now? Why now? When they had a record deal and were so close to actually touring? Why now?
Frank sat moodily on the sidewalk in front of his apartment and brooded into his third cigarette. He sighed tapping it against the side of his shoe to get rid of the excess ash, and sighed deep and troubled.
He heard some laughter that sounded familiar and the patter of footsteps before he saw three small shadows stop right in front of him.
He looked up to see the faces of Gerard and two of the three creepy kids that always seemed to hang around him. It seemed that Pete, the one who had that ridiculous crush on Mikey was missing today. Both Brendon and Ryan were standing a little ways away and turned towards each other as if they were having a conversation, when Frank knew fully well that they were planning to listen in on whatever he and Gerard talked about.
Gerard was standing there buried under his twenty scarves and Ray sized hoodie and he smiled at Frank from under his eyelashes which he freaking fluttered and he breathed out, "Hey Frankie."
Frank felt his gut clench without his permission. He took a drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke to the side half smiling at the kid, "Hey Gee, shouldn’t you be in school?"
There, Frank thought happily. He reestablished the line between adult and child. Gerard was still in school therefore a child, therefore Frank should not in anyway be attracted to him.
But then Gerard cut his eyes to the side and mumbled something about school being let out early and blushed so prettily that his cheeks flushed and Frank felt the urge to push down the scarves just to see how far down that blush went and damnit! He thought that he was over this.
Frank followed Gerard’s eyes as they followed his cigarette back to his mouth and fully grinned when Gerard watched him inhale the smoke.
He exhaled again this time, not making sure it didn’t wash over him and held out the half smoked cig, "Want to try it?"
Gerard’s eyes widened a bit and he nodded. But instead of taking the smoke out of Frank’s hands he pressed his lips over the bud from where it jutted between his middle and pointer finger and inhaled, his eyes on Frank’s the whole while.
It would’ve been sexy as hell if Gerard hadn’t begun coughing up a lung, because of course this was the kid’s first cigarette.
Frank smirked and leaned back against the steps leaving his jacket hanging open and exposing the strip of skin that showed whenever his shirt rode up.
He saw Gerard’s eyes follow his movement, his eyes straying and staying at his exposed stomach and Frank cursed himself because he was fucking flirting.
"Whoa," Gerard breathed, and before Frank could move, the kid was kneeling between his legs and his cold fingers were hovering above the swallows on his hips. "May I?"
Frank gulped and nodded because was this kid for real, asking him all polite and shit. He smoothed his fingers down the arch of the bird’s wing and then pulled his hand away. Frank pushed away the sweeping sensation that seemed to have taken over the clenching in his stomach and sat back up properly.
"You kids heading anywhere special?" he asked stressing the word kid and looking for all the world like someone who did not just let a fourteen year old kid brush his fingers across one of his most erogenous zones.
Not surprisingly it was Brendon who answered. Frank was actually surprised that he had kept quiet for so long, "We were actually heading over to the comic book store and then me and Ryan were going to the mall. Do you want to come with?"
Translation: Gee wanted to go to the comic book store, and Ryan and Brendon were going to ditch him and go to the mall, did Frank want to go so that Gee wasn’t left all by himself?
Although Frank was fairly sure that Gerard could take care of himself, he knew that Mikey would skin him alive for knowingly leaving Gee under the clutches of Gabe Saporta, Bill Beckett, and Travis McCoy, the three who surprisingly owned the only freaking comic book store in town. Not surprising was the fact that Travis used it as a cover to grow his own freaking garden of special herbs, one of those being pot and Frank was running low.
He stood up and flicked his cigarette to the side, "Let’s go."
It wasn’t surprising that Brendon kept a steady chatter all the way to the comic book store all about school and complaining that he wasn’t allowed after hours to play on the piano when the seniors could do it. Frank had smoked two more cigarettes walking right beside Gerard who was at an arms length away, and short enough that Frank had to bend his head a little just to see the side of his face.
He was so tiny, Frank mused. Under all those layers of clothing, he really was this little kid that Frank could probably lift off his feet if he tried hard enough. Gerard looked over at him then and caught him staring. Frank just grinned at him and sucked down the rest of his smoke before flicking the filter to the side and stuffing his hands down his pockets.
He never expected anything to really come from it. In his head he was doing Mikey a favor, keeping his brother company at the comic book store so that Gabe wouldn’t molest him. It was like if he was doing community service. With the plus of getting some good shit from Travis and getting the new Doom Patrol, it all worked out in his favor.
Finding out little Gee liked the same comics as he did was the creamy sweet icing on the already delicious cake. He spent two hours sitting with him on the floor of the store, ignoring Gabe’s lewd comments and Bill’s sly glances, just talking.
They had a lot of things in common. Not just with comics, but in movies and music, and Frank found himself a little fascinated by this kid who didn’t like showers and looked like if he needed to wash his hair, who liked old school monster movies and Audrey Hepburn, whose ambition in life was to become an artist. Not even a famous artist just an artist.
He looked at Frank from under his eye lashes and blushed a little, "That’s why I admire you so much Frankie. You get to do what you love to do and who gives a fuck if it doesn’t pay well as long as you’re doing it."
Frank gulped down at the sudden and terrifying swoop his stomach did at the way the word ‘fuck’ seemed to roll off of Gerard’s mouth. The pretty mouth that framed these pretty words carelessly and had been pressed against Frank’s a little over three weeks ago.
Frank could do it now too. He could push the little kid back against the book shelf that had been serving as their back rest and uncover him under all those layers. Push away all the scarves and jacket and check to see if his finger prints were still marked on his hips.
Frank shook his head and snapped out of it. He stood up and stretched. He realized that his shirt had risen up and was exposing the skin of his hips and belly again. He also realized that in some context this could be considered as flirting, but he didn’t think too much on it. He just offered Gerard his hand and pulled the kid to his feet.
He left without saying goodbye to Saporta or Beckett. Travis just dipped a nod in his direction from his spot by the door, and he actually pulled Gerard into a hug whispering something in his ear that made the kid blush and look at Frank.
Frank just shook his head and went out the door.
Gerard was right next to him in a few minutes cheeks still flushed and bag clutched to his chest. He gave Frank a shy smile and Frank felt around his jacket pockets for the pack of smokes. He needed to be doing something with his mouth and now before he really did push the kid against something and devoured him.
They walked in silence all the way to the Way household.
It started out innocently enough. At first, Frank still hung out with Mikey and doodled on Hambone’s cast and went to bars to get shit faced. The only difference was that he hung out with Gerard too. And not in the ‘oh Mikey is not here let’s hang out instead’ way, but more like he went to the Way house with specific plans to hang out with Gerard in the basement and watch scary movies.
Then, it was all Frank did. In between his brand new mediocre minimum wage salary job at the craft store and jamming on his guitar (in his room and in public sometimes), he visited Gerard. They played Nintendo and watched movies but mostly they talked a lot about things that Frank had never even told anyone.
On one particular night when Gee’s parents were fighting, Frank tucked him under his arm and ran one hand idly through his hair and told him about how he met Hambone that one night he snuck out of his parents house because they were fighting. He told him about how it tore him apart to come back home that night and see that his dad was packed and leaving and his mom was yelling at him to never come back.
Gerard had gripped him around his waist and had buried his face into his throat and had cried before falling asleep. Frank had left him there tucked into his side and laid his cheek on top of his head and closed his eyes.
He had woken up to see Mikey sitting down on the edge of the bed looking at him oddly. There was still shouting coming from upstairs so that meant that he hadn’t slept long. He smiled when he saw Frank had woken up and whispered, "Thank you."
Frank had just shrugged and pulled Gerard closer to his side of the bed leaving a space for Mikey. The elder Way crawled to the space between Gee and the wall and tucked himself right behind his brother wrapping one arm around Gee and tucking it in between his waist and Frank and the other was in Frank’s hair.
Frank had fallen asleep listening to the Ways softly breathing in synchronization and the dulling noises of shouting coming from the stairs.
Then, there was the night he went over to the Way’s house after being in a bar most of the night, and he had sneaked into Gerard’s basement through the window, because it was cracked just enough that he could slip in-between. And also he really did not want anyone else to know that he was sneaking into Gerard’s room.
He landed with a muffled thump on top of what had to be the Mt. Everest of dirty laundry. He fell three times into the stinky pile of clothes, before he finally managed to pull away with a shirt attached to his face.
He pulled the shirt off him and threw it back on the pile.
He took a deep breath and took in his surroundings.
The soft blue glow of the TV cast shadows over the usual piles of clothes, comic books and sketch pads. There were several canvases tilted against the walls that Frank remembered from two days ago when he lazed around in Gerard’s bed reading comics and watching movies while Gerard painted like a maniac and tore his hair out.
His eyes landed on the bed where Gerard was curled towards the edge, one of his hands hanging down barely brushing the pile of clean clothes that laid there.
As Frank stepped closer, he could see that there was a smudge of black ink down his cheek and another by his bottom lip. His head was cradled on top of his latest sketch pad, and Frank knew that if he lifted his head there would be spiral marks imprinted on his cheek. There was an array of pencils, markers, pens and colored pencils surrounding him.
So Mikey had obviously not come home yet.
He usually picked up around Gerard and tucked him into bed properly before going to sleep. Frank had been there to help countless of times before. He wondered for a second if Mikey was at Ray’s because he swore that he had seen him leave.
He shook his head before beginning to clean up around him. He put the pens and pencils in their cases and then as gently as possible began to pull the sketch pad from under Gee’s head.
The kid stirred and lifted his head. Frank tried not to yell in success and looked to see what Gerard had been drawing before he fell asleep.
Frank’s breath caught in his throat as he looked down at the colored version of him sleeping. It was actually different from the first one he’d seen. This one was obviously in Gerard’s bed because Frank did not have Wolverine sheets. The detail to his tattoo’s took his breath away.
He closed his eyes when he saw the colors swimming and blurring together only to feel a tear rolling down his cheek.
Frank thought it wasn’t fair. This was not fair. How could it be that the one person who saw him as something more than just a warm body for a night, or something more than that crazy singer from that crazy band be the one person that he was not allowed to have?
He set the book aside and looked at Gerard to see that the kid had his eyes open and was looking straight at Frank.
He kneeled up as Frank moved closer and reached out brushing at Frank’s tears with his thumb. Frank sighed shakily, and lifted his own hand to thumb at the black smudge below Gerard’s mouth. The kid’s mouth opened as he exhaled, and he closed his eyes as he turned and pressed a kiss on Frank’s thumb.
Frank closed his eyes and he was pretty sure that the breathy sigh that resounded the air was his.
He opened his eyes to see that Gerard was still watching him intently.
He wanted to kiss him, to push him back against his sheets and lay on him and kiss him forever.
But he really couldn’t.
So he did the next best thing.
He took his hand away from Gerard’s chin and gently pushed him back. There was something that looked like disappointment in Gerard’s eyes, but he crawled under the covers willingly.
He looked at Frank questioningly and Frank pulled off his shoes before laying on top of the covers and making a motion for Gerard to move closer.
The kid did and laid his head on Frank’s shoulder. Frank wrapped his arms around him and exhaled feeling whole for once.
Gerard turned his head so that his mouth was at Frank’s ear and he said, "I love you Frankie."
Frank shut his eyes and tightened his grip on the kid. It was sometimes so easy to forget that Gerard fourteen. He waited until Gerard’s breathing evened out before whispering, "I wish I could love you too."
He fell asleep holding on tight, with Gerard’s breath in his ear and those four little words echoing in his brain.
Part Four