Learning How To Swim (Frerard)

11. It's Fine Right Now But Don't Expect It To Stay Like That

It had been two days since Gerard had kissed Frank for the first time, and he was feeling the best he had in the time he'd been at his grandmother's. Frank and him had just finished with their swimming lessons, and Gerard could now actually get in the water without absolutely losing it.

They were sitting on Gerard's dock now, holding hands and making small talk, Frank cracking a joke every so often.

"Frank?" Gerard asked, Frank turning to him and smiling.

"What's up Gee?"

"What-what is this? Are we...what?" Gerard sputtered out, feeling his face heat up.

Frank furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Gerard, obviously confused. Gerard felt embarrassed. It wasn't an odd thing to ask was it? Was it too horrible for him to question what his relationship with someone was? Frank needed to say something soon or Gerard felt he was going to explode.

"I-I don't know what you're asking, Gee." Frank said, rubbing his thumb on the back of Gerard's hand slowly.

"Are we, like, dating?" Gerard felt almost as red as his hair when he was in junior year. That was an odd year for him.

Frank seemed shocked at the question. "Well, I, uh, guess I never made it all that official..." He looked away from Gerard and down at his feet hanging over the water, swirling them in the lake.

"But- yeah. I think we are, but do you?" Frank turned back to Gerard. Gerard thought about it for a moment before responding with:

"I mean, I hope we are, but I'm still a little unsure. I've never really been in a stable relationship before..." Gerard aimed to shift the awkward turn the conversation had made, but Frank beat him to it.

'Okay, I've got a proposal for you," Frank stated turned towards Gerard completely now. "Not the marriage kind, but the date kind. There's a pizza place in town. It's a bit of a drive -twenty minutes- but the pizza is honestly the shit, and I think it would be a fun thing to do for our 'first date'."

Gerard looked at Frank in silence, before really acknowledging that he actually had to respond, and he sputtered out a response:

"Oh, yeah, yes of course. God, I'm just really a mess and kind of awful at this stuff. Sorry." He blushed as he spoke and Frank shook his head at Gerard in this 'I can't believe you right now' way.

"You're not awful, just a bit awkward. But that's okay, everyone is a little awkward. The people who aren't are fucking crazy." Frank laughed at little after that, which made Gerard feel a little better and his heart warm.

"Yeah, okay Frank. So about that date?" Gerard raised his eyebrows and Frank smirked like ever-loving fuck, which naturally set Gerard on guard for some weird request.

"You go home and get dressed and such, meet me on the dock when you're ready and alert your family that you'll be going out tonight. See ya in a bit." Frank gave Gerard a quick kiss before diving into the water, well, more like slipping and choking a bit on the water before blowing Gerard a kiss and beginning to swim to his house across the lake.

Gerard shook his head at his boyfriend before heading inside his grandmother's house to see his grandmother on the couch with a cloth across her forehead and Mikey stirring what smelled like pasta at the stove.

"Grandma, what's the matter?" Gerard quickly knelt down next to Elena, who smiled weakly at Gerard and placed a shaking hand on his cheek.

"I'm fine honey," Her voice was strained as she spoke which made Gerard more worried about her than he had previously. "I'm just a little under the weather. I'll be fine in a few days, don't worry about me." She sat up on the couch, calling out blindly to Mikey: