Pyre (Frerard, Rikey, Ryden, Petekey)

26: The Calm Before The Storm

Gerard snuggled into Frank's side with a sigh of contentment, subtly inhaling the unique scent of his skin that Gerard would never get enough of. Frank leaned into Gerard's touch gratefully, his entire body going pliant as he relaxed against the couch, smothering Gerard with his smaller frame. Having Frank so close to him caused Gerard's stomach to cramp slightly with faint hunger pains, but he had fed just three days ago, so it was easy to resist the temptation to taste Frank's blood again.

Over the past two weeks, Gerard had spent almost every night with Frank, which probably wasn't the best idea given the fact that he was trying to keep their relationship a secret, but whenever Gerard went more than a day without seeing him, his lungs started to tighten until it reached the point that Gerard couldn't remember how to take a normal breath, and he wouldn't be able to inhale regularly until Frank was in his arms again.

No one had seemed to notice his large amount of absences though, and Gerard made sure to appear at Quinn's regularly, as well as to be seen around the coven before disappearing for the night. His nightmares had dried up almost entirely, which was most likely due to how often he was seeing Frank, so he didn't have much to discuss with the other vampire during their sessions, but he still stopped by just in case Quinn had discovered something that might be helpful to him, which he hadn't so far.

Mikey and Ray successfully kept up appearances when he was gone, and even Brendon and Ryan created alibis for him whenever someone asked. It helped that Bert and Lindsey seemed to be out and about more often than not as well, and although Gerard was curious about where they went, he was too nervous to ask them. Brendon speculated that they were gathering goods and seeking out safe places to feed, but he hadn't sounded too sure of his answer.

Brendon and Ryan had begun joining Gerard on his visits to Frank's place when it was safe for all of them to leave, stating that they wanted to see Frank as well as the small white dog they had apparently found and left in Frank's care. Gerard quickly earned the two vampires stamp of approval regarding his courtship of Frank, and they were no longer fearful that Gerard would hurt him, which he wouldn't - he would die before he let that happen.

Gerard had passed the two of them off as neighbors he had recently met, and although Frank gave them a strange look when Gerard had finished his shoddy explanation, he didn't question it further, which Gerard was very thankful for since it was getting harder and harder to lie to Frank.

Gerard had managed to keep all of his stories straight so far, even when Frank had inquired about his cat which Gerard had forgotten making up. That had thrown Gerard off for a bit, but luckily he saved face by stating that the cat had run away when Mikey left the door open, and they were still searching for him at the moment, which earned him a gentle embrace and murmured apologies from Frank which Gerard guilty accepted.

The one thing Gerard was terrified about Frank catching onto seemed to slip Frank's notice though, which was the fact that Gerard never went out when the sun was up, but Frank was busy running his clinic during the day, so he rarely contacted Gerard until late afternoon, and with winter settling over the small town, nightfall came quicker than usual, allowing Gerard to risk showing his face early enough to avoid arousing any suspicion on Frank's end.

Even when Gerard couldn't get away for the evening, he and Frank stayed in constant contact due to Gerard's new cell phone, which helped Gerard stay sane. Frank's voice soothed his restlessness when he thought his skin would split open if he wasn't able to see Frank, and although Brendon had warned him about not scaring Frank off by being too needy, Frank seemed to miss Gerard just as much as he did when they were apart, and he usually fell asleep on the line with him instead of hanging up since he didn't want their conversation to end.