Burn As Bright (Frerard)

7

Blackness consumed Frank's vision as the sounds and rumble of an engine filled his other senses. He could feel his chest rise and fall with his breaths. His fingers curled and stretched, scraping against metal as he tried to regain where he was. Metal. Engine. Movement. He was still breathing.

His mind was fogged. His brain wouldn't focus on anything; any thoughts that tried to come to the front of his mind instead swirled as an incoherent movement of colors and shapes.

A soft groan passed his lips as his face scrunched. The only constant was the darkness and the sound around him. He flexed his fingers once more, trying to focus on the surface beneath them. Textured metal that was warm to the touch. He let out another breath and mentally repeated the what he felt.

Textured metal, warm to the touch.

Textured metal, warm to the touch.

Where was textured metal that was warm to the touch?

Frank inhaled and exhaled again, slowly feeling his mind begin to ease from its spinning. After a moment of continuing to let the sensation ease, he opened his eyes.

Above him was metal. Shifting his gaze from side to side, he saw more metal with blurry lights and knobs dotting their surface. "Metal..." He mumbled to himself, looking back up at the ceiling. The details leading up to this point were... fuzzy. He could remember... Pain.

One of his hands lifted to his chest as the phantom of the blackout pain shot back through him. That marking that had spread across his chest after... after something had happened. Something back at-

"The base!" Frank shot up, groaning from pain immediately after. He was leaving the base. He was in a stolen vehicle from the base with the prisoner he was supposed to be interrogating. The same one that held a small knife against him to lead him to this point... Wherever this point was... "Did we?.."

Frank suddenly became aware of another sound that had eluded his senses before. A soft hum that wasn't mechanical. It was human.

Slowly, Frank pushed himself to his feet. He gripped the uneven metal walls around him wherever he could to steady himself as the vehicle rumbled on. Just looking ahead, he could see the pilot's chair facing a cracked and singed windshield. He couldn't see any further due to its damage, so he focused on the chair. The hum rose from it, almost pulling Frank closer with every faint note. As he reached out to touch the seat, the humming abruptly stopped. Frank retracted his hand as the chair spun around.

"Hu, so you didn't ditch me!" The redhead sitting there grinned.

"Gerard?" Frank squinted at him. "You can drive this?"

Gerard nodded. "We rework your scraps, remember? You just wake up from a nap or something?"

"Or something..." Frank repeated. He still wasn't entirely sure what had happened.

Gerard rolled his eyes. "Here I was, being clever during our great escape for no audience. What a waste." He spun the chair back around to face the windshield.

Frank blinked. Had he heard Gerard right? "Escape?" He turned to the battered windshield. He stepped closer, not even hearing whatever Gerard was saying as his breath caught in his throat.

The world wasn't orange.

So many colors met his eyes, it was like looking through a kaleidoscope. Greens. Purples. Yellows. Blues. Plants stretched from the ground, reaching for the light that peeked through their large leaves and branches.

"Holy shit..." The words came out as a breath.

Gerard laughed behind him. "You act like you've never been out here before."