This Is Not A Fic. The Sk8er Boi AU AKA Frank the Secret Prep School Punk
(About 3k of Frank/Gerard not!fic, rated PG, not beta'ed because it's RIDICULOUS.)
It all started because of This Tweet: bdo_official: That'd be @tonyhawk skating with My Chemical Romance in the background. Fairly average day here at BDO. #bdo2012 fb.me/1xI4Gdw7u
Which prompted this conversation:
kopperblaze Mcr skating with tony hawk??? I gotta see this, getting the laptop out for a sec at work >.>
gala_apples EXCUSE ME WHAT?
kopperblaze oh. i guess it is tony hawk skating with the mcr stage in the background. now i'm kinda disappointed lol
gala_apples Oh god, for a second I thought My Chem and Tony Hawk were legit hanging out. I NEED MIKEY WAY ON A SKATEBOARD.
ladyfoxxx Skater AU anyone?
ladyfoxxx Actually I want an AU based on Avril's sk8er boy. Someone get on that.
kopperblaze omg i've wanted an au based on that song for ages!!! Pref brian/mikey or ray/mikey or or. Actually i don't care,i want
ladyfoxxx so who is the posh one who does ballet?
kopperblaze uhm.... Ryan ross? Lol
ladyfoxxx LOL so then what, it's mikey/ryan?
gala_apples LOL THEN IT ENDS IN MPREG WITH RYAN. Awesome.
ladyfoxxx I actually want the sk8er boi story where the posh one and the skatey one end up together
ladyfoxxx I am such a hopeless romantic like that
kopperblaze me too. In that case mikey should do ballet
ladyfoxxx LOL mikey in a tutu
gala_apples DUDES. DUDES. IT IS CANON THAT FRANK TOOK BALLET LESSONS :D
ladyfoxxx well frank did go to private school, right? maybe it could be pre-punk frank?
ladyfoxxx or SECRETLY punk frank...
And a bunny was born. It actually is less sk8er boi and more Frank the Secret Prep School Punk.
ETA - This pile of crazy has now been podficced! Twice! Podfic by argentumlupine and Podfic by reena_jenkins
So Frank goes to this posh boarding school, where they have rules about haircuts and he has to wear a tie. And a blazer. And shoes of specific colour.
And yes, he does do ballet. It was either that or lacrosse and no one wanted him on the team because he's tiny.
He's been in schools of this calibre since birth, because his family - while not stinking rich - are well off, and his dad is in some kind of political position where everyone has a lot of concern about the family name. They are grooming Frank to be in some kind of lofty position when he graduates and follow in his fathers footsteps and whatever.
Anyway, Frank knows his lot in life. He knows what's expected of him and he's a good son and he tows the line, keeps up his grades, behaves well, and he can tie a double-Windsor with his eyes closed.
There's a skate park near the school and a bunch of grubby skater kids hang out there and smoke and drink from paper bags and wear a lot of black and metal and basically make a nuisance of themselves. Frank's snobby schoolmates turn their noses up at them and the school complains about how that land would be better suited to a community centre or residential housing or whatever. Sometimes the lacrosse guys from Frank's school even go out to the skate park to pick fights with the skater kids or break their skateboards. The lacrosse guys are kind of assholes.
The thing is, Frank kind of envies the skaters. He's secretly jealous of how their parents don't seem to give a shit about what they wear or the music they listen to and how much freedom they seem to have.
Frank is also a secretly a punk. Well, he's into the music anyway. He's got Black Flag and The Misfits tapes hidden in cases for Chopin and Beethoven because the school and everyone in his world frown on that kind of music. He listens to it secretly on his walkman and he does occasional trips into the record store in town to buy tapes and he always feels bad when he throws out the liners, but he just can't risk keeping them.
He sometimes sneaks out to gigs in ripped jeans and merch t-shirts that he keeps stashed in the back of his wardrobe. It's risky, sure, and he sometimes recognises the skater kids, but they never recognise him and he can just throw himself into the moshpit and feel the music slam into him and just fucking let go.
He'll spend the whole next day back at school in his tie and blazer, with bruises from the moshpit underneath his clothes and his ears ringing. It feels pretty good.
Of course, eventually he ends up meeting the Ways at one of these gigs. He recognises them from seeing them at a distance at the skatepark (seriously, they are always there. don't they have homes to go to?) and he's a little surprised to find out they're brothers and not like, boyfriends, because they're ridiculously joined at the hip.
He's not quick enough to lie about his name, so they get to know him as Frank and never ask for his last name and he doesn't even need to bullshit anything about where he lives because they don't ask about that either. Frank's not used to hanging around with people who don't care what your last name is or what area you live in, it's weird. But a good weird. They talk about music and comics and films Frank's not supposed to have seen and they swear like, ALL THE TIME. Frank thinks they're amazing.
So yeah, now Frank has this secret double life where he sneaks out to be a punk and has these awesome punkass friends. So he has to keep his head down when he's walking past the skate park in his uniform and he has these mild freakouts that they might recognise him, which kind of sucks, but aside from that he's doing okay with it.
The shittiest part is that he can't talk to anyone about it. He has these amazing new friends and he can't even TELL anyone. He considers telling Ray - he's Frank's roommate at the posh school (this is pre-fro Ray). He's in the super-talented music strand and he plays amazing Spanish guitar. (Frank once heard him playing something that sounded suspiciously like Metallica when he thought he was on his own, so Frank thinks he might be okay with Frank's un-approved music choices) but Frank doesn't tell anyone.
So Frank's leading this double life and he's really fucking torn. On one hand he wonders if he can cut his hair some way where it can look normal most of the time, but he can mohawk it for gigs, and he keeps considering tattoos he could get in easy-to-hide places. On the other hand his stomach turns at the idea of doing anything permanent that his parents might find out about, because it's not like he doesn't love them and want to please them and he can't stand the idea of disappointing them.
It's kind of stressful living two lives. He has to curb his tongue on both sides to make sure he doesn't talk about the punk stuff with his school friends and vice versa. Plus all the sneaking out to gigs on top of the worrying about slipping up means he goes to a lot of classes with dark circles under his eyes and Ray gives him meaningful looks when he sneaks back into their room at odd hours, but Frank's totally holding it together. He's totally fine.
Until the day he runs into Mikey while he's wearing his uniform. Frank is like OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT and Mikey's like *squint* there's something different about you *squint*. Frank grabs his arm and they duck down an alley and Frank's like 'please PLEASE don't tell anyone' and Mikey all "I don't understand" and Frank's all "dear GOD please don't tell your brother." Because Frank has maybe developed an epic crush on Gerard. And Gerard HATES the kids at Frank's school. A lot. (There was an incident where they broke his skateboard. Actually there were several incidents.)
Mikey is confused, but he swears he won't tell Gerard, on the proviso that Frank has to come clean on his own SOON. Frank agrees, but secretly hopes he can talk Mikey out of it and that's it for awhile - no more dramas.
In fact things get really AWESOME, because the next gig is the Bouncing Souls and Frank kind of loves them to pieces and he counts down the days to the gig and keeps jittering in his seat and playing with his tie in class thinking about how great the gig is going to be. They're playing at a venue that's in a dodgy part of town and it's a lot further away than the gigs Frank usually goes to, so he basically has to sneak out straight after class and take fifty buses to get there, but it's so fucking worth it because the gig is completely amazing! Frank nearly dies in the moshpit squished up against Gerard's back and with Mikey's elbow in his side but it's perfect and he wouldn't change a thing.
Afterwards, he and Gerard share a cigarette in the parking lot (Frank totally shouldn't smoke, not with his lung issues, but he's kind of addicted to it now thanks to the Ways) while Mikey's inside trying to chat up some chick who's wearing more eyeliner than Siouxsie Sioux.
Frank's not sure if it's because he's so high from the gig being so awesome or what, but he finally mans up and kisses Gerard, who kind of squeaks and kisses back and then drops his cigarette and nearly sets Frank's leg on fire but he pours some beer on it to put it out and they laugh and make out some more and Frank can't believe this is his LIFE.
They go back inside holding hands and Mikey is all *EYEBROWS*YOUNEEDTOTELLHIM*EYEBROWS* at Frank and it gives Frank a twinge but OMG he will deal with that LATER. Nothing is going to ruin his night. NOTHING. A kiss goodnight from Gerard leads to making out against his car until Mikey's gone from subtle throat-clearing to proper "oh-my-god-I'm-dying-of-consumption" coughing and they finally manage to separate. And Gerard does this thing where he touches his fingers to Frank's cheek all feather-light and smiles this ridiculously gorgeous grin at him and Frank is head-over-fucking-heels for him, holy shit.
They offer Frank a ride, but he talks them into dropping him off at the first of his many bus stops and he kisses Gerard through the window before they drive off with Mikey making vomiting noises. He steals into a public toilet to change out of his punk gear and that's when he figures out that in his rush to get away from school early he totally forgot to bring something neutral to wear back to his school. He's stuck having to choose between staying in his punk outfit - which is so full-on these days that security at the school would totally grab him and not even let him in - or his uniform.
This is how he winds up in his preppy school uniform in a pretty dodgy part of town. And he totally gets mugged and it fucking SUCKS. They take his bag and everything in it - his phone, his wallet, everything! There's no way he can make it back to the school under his own steam. He can't call Ray or his parents for rescue, because he has no reason to be in such a shitty area. So he sucks it up, finds a payphone and collect calls Mikey, hoping against hope that he doesn't bring Gerard with him.
Of course Mikey brings Gerard with him.
When Gerard sees Frank he goes from concerned (blood!) to confused (he's wearing the uniform of his hated enemies) and then he looks at Mikey and they have an eyebrow conversation that seems to involve apology and disappointment and when Gerard turns back to Frank his expression is totally blank. They take him back to the Ways place and down into the basement. It's a really cool, creepy house and the basement is amazing and covered in art and comics and it feels really "Gerardly", but Frank can't really appreciate it because he's in pain and worrying out of his head that Gerard is going to hate him forever now.
Gerard and Mikey peel Frank out of his blood stained clothes, patch him up and loan him something clean and neutral to wear. They drive him back to the school and park around the corner so they won't be seen. Gerard doesn't talk to him except to check if he's in physical pain and to make sure he can get inside okay and it hurts so much worse than every bruise on Frank's body that he doesn't look at him before he drives off.
Frank goes back inside feeling like absolute shit. Ray lets him in and doesn't ask what happened because he's a fucking saint and he helps Frank to bed and the next morning he lies for him about an accident moving a bookshelf that fell on Frank to get him out of class. Ray is a really, really good guy.
Frank doesn't hear from the Ways and he spends a lot of time being sore and regretful and staring wistfully out his window at the skate park. He lies to his parents about leaving his bag on a train so he doesn't have to tell them he got mugged and lost his phone and wallet and everything and they make disappointed noises and tell him he has to be more careful and send him more allowance to make up what he lost. He uses the money to buy more music and spends hours lying around on his bed miserably with Black Flag blaring in his ears. (He can't bear to listen to the Bouncing Souls anymore.)
He stops going to gigs altogether. His secret punk clothes sit at the back of his wardrobe, untouched.
He's pretty fucking miserable and Ray totally notices and tries to shake him out of it, but it doesn't work. Frank tries really hard to stop listening to his secret tapes and just be okay with being the private school kid his parents want him to be, but he just CAN'T. He misses the gigs and he misses the music but more than anything he misses Mikey and Gerard.
So much so that he thinks he's hallucinating when he crosses the quad one day and catches a glimpse of a familiar face. He double takes because no way is that Gerard - it must be just a new student who looks like him, because the kid is in a full school uniform and there's no way Gerard would be caught dead wearing that. Except if he looks closer he can see that peeking out under the hem of the slacks are Gerard's combat boots, polished to a shine, and there are very faint stains on the blazer - because it's Frank's blazer. It's Frank's uniform - the one he was wearing the night he got mugged, Gerard must have cleaned it up so he could wear it and pose as a student.
When he looks up, Gerard's looking back at him from under a school baseball cap which he must have stolen because Frank's never owned one. Gerard is SMILING at him and Frank just boggles back because what the actual FUCK?
They duck into some vaguely private space and Frank's like, "Gee, what are you doing here?" and Gerard's like, "Frank, you've been gone for WEEKS. This is like the emergency back-up plan to make sure you're not dead."
Frank just kind of stares at him, still not really able to put the pieces together.
"You haven't called, you haven't been out at any gigs, and it's not like we can just phone you up dickhead - they took your phone! I don't even know your last name." Gerard frowns. "We were worried about you."
Frank simultaneously feels like the luckiest guy and the biggest asshole in the world. "You were worried about me?"
"Yes, you asshole. The last time we saw you, you'd been mugged. And then you were just gone. You totally missed the Nada Surf gig."
"Fuck." Frank was really looking forward to that one, "I'm so bummed I missed that."
"You should be, it was fucking awesome. What happened, you get grounded or something?"
Frank looks down at his feet. He got off surprisingly lightly with his parents, all things considered. "I didn't think you'd want to see me again. Because, you know," he gestures vaguely at the uniform.
Gerard just glares at him, "If you thought that, then you've been hanging around these dickheads too long. Yeah, I was pissed at you - because you didn't tell me, you fucking kept this from me, and that's not cool. But I guess I can kind of see why." He kicks at the ground with his too-shiny combat boots, before stepping closer to Frank and telling him, "I'll forgive you if you promise not to do it again."
"Deal." Frank says, feeling weirdly light, like his chest is full of air. He checks carefully to make sure no one can see them, and kisses Gerard quickly. It's to fast to be anything but a tease but it's awesome - amazing even. Frank had totally given up on this happening and it's like being given a second chance at life (or rather, at his double-life).
They break apart grinning and Frank knows he's blushing but he doesn't care. "So are you coming to the battle of the bands at the Loop on Thursday then?"
"Fuck yes."
Gerard grins, "right answer." The warning bell sounds for the next round of classes, "I better go before someone realises I'm not one of you snobs."
Frank just laughs. "You look good in a tie."
Gerard flips him off with a grin.
When Frank arrives the battle of the bands, Gerard is wearing Frank's tie as part of his punk outfit.
Frank tells him to keep it.
THE END
(Sort of. Obviously Frank can't keep living a double life forever. He and Gerard are all Romeo & Juliet 'love in the shadows' for a while, until some big drama goes down where Frank is put in a position to choose between his loyalty to the school and protecting his punk friends. Of course he makes the right choice & defends Gerard & Mikey and there definitely needs to be moment with Frank in his preppy uniform and Gerard in his punk digs kissing in front of the world, either in the skate park or the quad, I haven't decided, but then I'm never going to write this fic anyway so THERE.)
It all started because of This Tweet: bdo_official: That'd be @tonyhawk skating with My Chemical Romance in the background. Fairly average day here at BDO. #bdo2012 fb.me/1xI4Gdw7u
Which prompted this conversation:
kopperblaze Mcr skating with tony hawk??? I gotta see this, getting the laptop out for a sec at work >.>
gala_apples EXCUSE ME WHAT?
kopperblaze oh. i guess it is tony hawk skating with the mcr stage in the background. now i'm kinda disappointed lol
gala_apples Oh god, for a second I thought My Chem and Tony Hawk were legit hanging out. I NEED MIKEY WAY ON A SKATEBOARD.
ladyfoxxx Skater AU anyone?
ladyfoxxx Actually I want an AU based on Avril's sk8er boy. Someone get on that.
kopperblaze omg i've wanted an au based on that song for ages!!! Pref brian/mikey or ray/mikey or or. Actually i don't care,i want
ladyfoxxx so who is the posh one who does ballet?
kopperblaze uhm.... Ryan ross? Lol
ladyfoxxx LOL so then what, it's mikey/ryan?
gala_apples LOL THEN IT ENDS IN MPREG WITH RYAN. Awesome.
ladyfoxxx I actually want the sk8er boi story where the posh one and the skatey one end up together
ladyfoxxx I am such a hopeless romantic like that
kopperblaze me too. In that case mikey should do ballet
ladyfoxxx LOL mikey in a tutu
gala_apples DUDES. DUDES. IT IS CANON THAT FRANK TOOK BALLET LESSONS :D
ladyfoxxx well frank did go to private school, right? maybe it could be pre-punk frank?
ladyfoxxx or SECRETLY punk frank...
And a bunny was born. It actually is less sk8er boi and more Frank the Secret Prep School Punk.
ETA - This pile of crazy has now been podficced! Twice! Podfic by argentumlupine and Podfic by reena_jenkins
So Frank goes to this posh boarding school, where they have rules about haircuts and he has to wear a tie. And a blazer. And shoes of specific colour.
And yes, he does do ballet. It was either that or lacrosse and no one wanted him on the team because he's tiny.
He's been in schools of this calibre since birth, because his family - while not stinking rich - are well off, and his dad is in some kind of political position where everyone has a lot of concern about the family name. They are grooming Frank to be in some kind of lofty position when he graduates and follow in his fathers footsteps and whatever.
Anyway, Frank knows his lot in life. He knows what's expected of him and he's a good son and he tows the line, keeps up his grades, behaves well, and he can tie a double-Windsor with his eyes closed.
There's a skate park near the school and a bunch of grubby skater kids hang out there and smoke and drink from paper bags and wear a lot of black and metal and basically make a nuisance of themselves. Frank's snobby schoolmates turn their noses up at them and the school complains about how that land would be better suited to a community centre or residential housing or whatever. Sometimes the lacrosse guys from Frank's school even go out to the skate park to pick fights with the skater kids or break their skateboards. The lacrosse guys are kind of assholes.
The thing is, Frank kind of envies the skaters. He's secretly jealous of how their parents don't seem to give a shit about what they wear or the music they listen to and how much freedom they seem to have.
Frank is also a secretly a punk. Well, he's into the music anyway. He's got Black Flag and The Misfits tapes hidden in cases for Chopin and Beethoven because the school and everyone in his world frown on that kind of music. He listens to it secretly on his walkman and he does occasional trips into the record store in town to buy tapes and he always feels bad when he throws out the liners, but he just can't risk keeping them.
He sometimes sneaks out to gigs in ripped jeans and merch t-shirts that he keeps stashed in the back of his wardrobe. It's risky, sure, and he sometimes recognises the skater kids, but they never recognise him and he can just throw himself into the moshpit and feel the music slam into him and just fucking let go.
He'll spend the whole next day back at school in his tie and blazer, with bruises from the moshpit underneath his clothes and his ears ringing. It feels pretty good.
Of course, eventually he ends up meeting the Ways at one of these gigs. He recognises them from seeing them at a distance at the skatepark (seriously, they are always there. don't they have homes to go to?) and he's a little surprised to find out they're brothers and not like, boyfriends, because they're ridiculously joined at the hip.
He's not quick enough to lie about his name, so they get to know him as Frank and never ask for his last name and he doesn't even need to bullshit anything about where he lives because they don't ask about that either. Frank's not used to hanging around with people who don't care what your last name is or what area you live in, it's weird. But a good weird. They talk about music and comics and films Frank's not supposed to have seen and they swear like, ALL THE TIME. Frank thinks they're amazing.
So yeah, now Frank has this secret double life where he sneaks out to be a punk and has these awesome punkass friends. So he has to keep his head down when he's walking past the skate park in his uniform and he has these mild freakouts that they might recognise him, which kind of sucks, but aside from that he's doing okay with it.
The shittiest part is that he can't talk to anyone about it. He has these amazing new friends and he can't even TELL anyone. He considers telling Ray - he's Frank's roommate at the posh school (this is pre-fro Ray). He's in the super-talented music strand and he plays amazing Spanish guitar. (Frank once heard him playing something that sounded suspiciously like Metallica when he thought he was on his own, so Frank thinks he might be okay with Frank's un-approved music choices) but Frank doesn't tell anyone.
So Frank's leading this double life and he's really fucking torn. On one hand he wonders if he can cut his hair some way where it can look normal most of the time, but he can mohawk it for gigs, and he keeps considering tattoos he could get in easy-to-hide places. On the other hand his stomach turns at the idea of doing anything permanent that his parents might find out about, because it's not like he doesn't love them and want to please them and he can't stand the idea of disappointing them.
It's kind of stressful living two lives. He has to curb his tongue on both sides to make sure he doesn't talk about the punk stuff with his school friends and vice versa. Plus all the sneaking out to gigs on top of the worrying about slipping up means he goes to a lot of classes with dark circles under his eyes and Ray gives him meaningful looks when he sneaks back into their room at odd hours, but Frank's totally holding it together. He's totally fine.
Until the day he runs into Mikey while he's wearing his uniform. Frank is like OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT and Mikey's like *squint* there's something different about you *squint*. Frank grabs his arm and they duck down an alley and Frank's like 'please PLEASE don't tell anyone' and Mikey all "I don't understand" and Frank's all "dear GOD please don't tell your brother." Because Frank has maybe developed an epic crush on Gerard. And Gerard HATES the kids at Frank's school. A lot. (There was an incident where they broke his skateboard. Actually there were several incidents.)
Mikey is confused, but he swears he won't tell Gerard, on the proviso that Frank has to come clean on his own SOON. Frank agrees, but secretly hopes he can talk Mikey out of it and that's it for awhile - no more dramas.
In fact things get really AWESOME, because the next gig is the Bouncing Souls and Frank kind of loves them to pieces and he counts down the days to the gig and keeps jittering in his seat and playing with his tie in class thinking about how great the gig is going to be. They're playing at a venue that's in a dodgy part of town and it's a lot further away than the gigs Frank usually goes to, so he basically has to sneak out straight after class and take fifty buses to get there, but it's so fucking worth it because the gig is completely amazing! Frank nearly dies in the moshpit squished up against Gerard's back and with Mikey's elbow in his side but it's perfect and he wouldn't change a thing.
Afterwards, he and Gerard share a cigarette in the parking lot (Frank totally shouldn't smoke, not with his lung issues, but he's kind of addicted to it now thanks to the Ways) while Mikey's inside trying to chat up some chick who's wearing more eyeliner than Siouxsie Sioux.
Frank's not sure if it's because he's so high from the gig being so awesome or what, but he finally mans up and kisses Gerard, who kind of squeaks and kisses back and then drops his cigarette and nearly sets Frank's leg on fire but he pours some beer on it to put it out and they laugh and make out some more and Frank can't believe this is his LIFE.
They go back inside holding hands and Mikey is all *EYEBROWS*YOUNEEDTOTELLHIM*EYEBROWS* at Frank and it gives Frank a twinge but OMG he will deal with that LATER. Nothing is going to ruin his night. NOTHING. A kiss goodnight from Gerard leads to making out against his car until Mikey's gone from subtle throat-clearing to proper "oh-my-god-I'm-dying-of-consumption" coughing and they finally manage to separate. And Gerard does this thing where he touches his fingers to Frank's cheek all feather-light and smiles this ridiculously gorgeous grin at him and Frank is head-over-fucking-heels for him, holy shit.
They offer Frank a ride, but he talks them into dropping him off at the first of his many bus stops and he kisses Gerard through the window before they drive off with Mikey making vomiting noises. He steals into a public toilet to change out of his punk gear and that's when he figures out that in his rush to get away from school early he totally forgot to bring something neutral to wear back to his school. He's stuck having to choose between staying in his punk outfit - which is so full-on these days that security at the school would totally grab him and not even let him in - or his uniform.
This is how he winds up in his preppy school uniform in a pretty dodgy part of town. And he totally gets mugged and it fucking SUCKS. They take his bag and everything in it - his phone, his wallet, everything! There's no way he can make it back to the school under his own steam. He can't call Ray or his parents for rescue, because he has no reason to be in such a shitty area. So he sucks it up, finds a payphone and collect calls Mikey, hoping against hope that he doesn't bring Gerard with him.
Of course Mikey brings Gerard with him.
When Gerard sees Frank he goes from concerned (blood!) to confused (he's wearing the uniform of his hated enemies) and then he looks at Mikey and they have an eyebrow conversation that seems to involve apology and disappointment and when Gerard turns back to Frank his expression is totally blank. They take him back to the Ways place and down into the basement. It's a really cool, creepy house and the basement is amazing and covered in art and comics and it feels really "Gerardly", but Frank can't really appreciate it because he's in pain and worrying out of his head that Gerard is going to hate him forever now.
Gerard and Mikey peel Frank out of his blood stained clothes, patch him up and loan him something clean and neutral to wear. They drive him back to the school and park around the corner so they won't be seen. Gerard doesn't talk to him except to check if he's in physical pain and to make sure he can get inside okay and it hurts so much worse than every bruise on Frank's body that he doesn't look at him before he drives off.
Frank goes back inside feeling like absolute shit. Ray lets him in and doesn't ask what happened because he's a fucking saint and he helps Frank to bed and the next morning he lies for him about an accident moving a bookshelf that fell on Frank to get him out of class. Ray is a really, really good guy.
Frank doesn't hear from the Ways and he spends a lot of time being sore and regretful and staring wistfully out his window at the skate park. He lies to his parents about leaving his bag on a train so he doesn't have to tell them he got mugged and lost his phone and wallet and everything and they make disappointed noises and tell him he has to be more careful and send him more allowance to make up what he lost. He uses the money to buy more music and spends hours lying around on his bed miserably with Black Flag blaring in his ears. (He can't bear to listen to the Bouncing Souls anymore.)
He stops going to gigs altogether. His secret punk clothes sit at the back of his wardrobe, untouched.
He's pretty fucking miserable and Ray totally notices and tries to shake him out of it, but it doesn't work. Frank tries really hard to stop listening to his secret tapes and just be okay with being the private school kid his parents want him to be, but he just CAN'T. He misses the gigs and he misses the music but more than anything he misses Mikey and Gerard.
So much so that he thinks he's hallucinating when he crosses the quad one day and catches a glimpse of a familiar face. He double takes because no way is that Gerard - it must be just a new student who looks like him, because the kid is in a full school uniform and there's no way Gerard would be caught dead wearing that. Except if he looks closer he can see that peeking out under the hem of the slacks are Gerard's combat boots, polished to a shine, and there are very faint stains on the blazer - because it's Frank's blazer. It's Frank's uniform - the one he was wearing the night he got mugged, Gerard must have cleaned it up so he could wear it and pose as a student.
When he looks up, Gerard's looking back at him from under a school baseball cap which he must have stolen because Frank's never owned one. Gerard is SMILING at him and Frank just boggles back because what the actual FUCK?
They duck into some vaguely private space and Frank's like, "Gee, what are you doing here?" and Gerard's like, "Frank, you've been gone for WEEKS. This is like the emergency back-up plan to make sure you're not dead."
Frank just kind of stares at him, still not really able to put the pieces together.
"You haven't called, you haven't been out at any gigs, and it's not like we can just phone you up dickhead - they took your phone! I don't even know your last name." Gerard frowns. "We were worried about you."
Frank simultaneously feels like the luckiest guy and the biggest asshole in the world. "You were worried about me?"
"Yes, you asshole. The last time we saw you, you'd been mugged. And then you were just gone. You totally missed the Nada Surf gig."
"Fuck." Frank was really looking forward to that one, "I'm so bummed I missed that."
"You should be, it was fucking awesome. What happened, you get grounded or something?"
Frank looks down at his feet. He got off surprisingly lightly with his parents, all things considered. "I didn't think you'd want to see me again. Because, you know," he gestures vaguely at the uniform.
Gerard just glares at him, "If you thought that, then you've been hanging around these dickheads too long. Yeah, I was pissed at you - because you didn't tell me, you fucking kept this from me, and that's not cool. But I guess I can kind of see why." He kicks at the ground with his too-shiny combat boots, before stepping closer to Frank and telling him, "I'll forgive you if you promise not to do it again."
"Deal." Frank says, feeling weirdly light, like his chest is full of air. He checks carefully to make sure no one can see them, and kisses Gerard quickly. It's to fast to be anything but a tease but it's awesome - amazing even. Frank had totally given up on this happening and it's like being given a second chance at life (or rather, at his double-life).
They break apart grinning and Frank knows he's blushing but he doesn't care. "So are you coming to the battle of the bands at the Loop on Thursday then?"
"Fuck yes."
Gerard grins, "right answer." The warning bell sounds for the next round of classes, "I better go before someone realises I'm not one of you snobs."
Frank just laughs. "You look good in a tie."
Gerard flips him off with a grin.
When Frank arrives the battle of the bands, Gerard is wearing Frank's tie as part of his punk outfit.
Frank tells him to keep it.
THE END
(Sort of. Obviously Frank can't keep living a double life forever. He and Gerard are all Romeo & Juliet 'love in the shadows' for a while, until some big drama goes down where Frank is put in a position to choose between his loyalty to the school and protecting his punk friends. Of course he makes the right choice & defends Gerard & Mikey and there definitely needs to be moment with Frank in his preppy uniform and Gerard in his punk digs kissing in front of the world, either in the skate park or the quad, I haven't decided, but then I'm never going to write this fic anyway so THERE.)