october challenge | frerard | ✔️

thirty - bones

thirty: pointless fluff

"He's so sensitive, Mia, I'm always scared I'm about to hurt him again," I sighed, crossing my arms and leaning back into her sofa. "Like it's just... I love him so much, but I feel like I could slip up and say something wrong and even if I apologised he'd still be really hurt by it."

She frowned.

"Like if he heard what I was saying about him right now he'd think I would want to break up with him, but I don't, I just feel like I'm walking on eggshells talking to him."

"You gotta tell him."

I paused, staring back into her golden-brown eyes and biting my lip. I knew she was right. She was my best friend—had been since high school. She knew me better than my own parents did. She knew everything about the situation, and she also knew she was right.

I eventually nodded, giving in. "I know I have to tell him," I sighed. "I already know, I just don't know how."

"Straight-forward," she said immediately. "You've got to tell him how you feel exactly how you've been telling me. Tell him you feel frustrated with how you have to control how you speak around him. Tell him you love him, because you obviously do. Tell him that you'd never mean to hurt him and that if you do it's most likely out of ignorance."

"I—" I bit down harder on my lip. "You make it sound so easy."

"Just get talking and it'll come naturally. Just do it. Tell him you have to talk and then drop the bomb."

"You make it sound like a bad thing."

"Well," she sighed. "You do realise he's gonna be offended at first, right?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "That's my Gee for you."

Jamia smiled and I couldn't help but join her. "You guys are adorable. Now, I have to do some work so skedaddle and talk to your boyfriend, Frank."

"Yes, ma'am," I laughed, picking up my coat, slipping on my shoes and hugging her. "I'll see you soon."

---

"Hey, Gee?" I called out as I entered the flat I shared with my boyfriend.

"In the kitchen!" he called back and I took off my shoes and put my coat away before treading slowly into the kitchen where he was. He was hunched over his sketchbook on the kitchen table, nursing a mug of almost finished coffee in his free hand.

How he had a free hand while he was drawing, don't ask me, but when something becomes your job like drawing became his, you develop habits. I smiled when he didn't look up. Wrapping my arms around him from behind, I placed a soft kiss below his ear.

"Hey Frankie," he mumbled, leaning into me. "You smell nice."

"I was just at Jamia's," I said, kissing his neck again. "We had a... a conversation."

"Oh?" he said, closing his sketchbook and placing it gently on the table. "What about?"

"You, actually."

"Oh?" he squeaked.

"Yeah," I hummed into his neck softly. "You know I love you like the moon loves the earth right, Gee?"

He smiled, turning around to kiss me properly. "But what?"

"But nothing," I said, kissing him again. "Does there have to be a condition for me loving you?"

"No," he mumbled. "Sorry, I'm just... being self-conscious again, I'm sorry, Frankie."

"Don't apologise," I whispered. "Hey, you're okay, babe."