Taking Back the Life You Stole

Chapter 6

 Frank couldn't help but think that bad luck somehow followed him around. First, the car crash, and then when things were actually going well, falling two nights in a row, the scrapes getting infected, stepping on glass, and after finally spending time with a new friend -yes, he was calling what happened that night in his living room 'spending time with'- for the first time in years, and his brother gets stabbed the next day. He understood that the intricacies that led to Mikey being stabbed were exceptionally far removed from him, but it just seemed like bad stuff happened wherever he was. Right now was an exception. He woke up to Gerard nestled up against him, his head resting on Frank's shoulder and his arm draped across Frank's stomach. It had been a really long time since he had been this close to someone, he didn't want to do anything to ruin it. What he wanted to do was close his eyes and go back to sleep within the warmth of another person, but his theory of being bad luck was proven correct again. As he was about to fall back asleep, there was a knock at the door that woke Gerard.

Gerard seemed a little embarrassed to find himself unconsciously huddled up to Frank, and moved away quickly before yelling "come in," in the direction of the door.

It was Ray, standing fully dressed and seemingly fine in the doorway. "Uh, I'm sorry if I woke you up. Is Frankie up?"

Frank rolled himself over and opened his eyes. "Yeah, I'm up."

"I have to go to work, but if it's okay with you and Gerard, I was wondering if you'd stay here, just until Mikey is up, so you can check on him for me." Ray ran a hand through his hair. "If it's not, I can drive you home right now, I have to stop at the apartment to change anyway."

"It's fine with me. It might be nice having someone else here, just so I don't start freaking out." Gerard looked over at Frank, awaiting his answer.

Frank nodded slowly. "Yeah, of course." Frank didn't know exactly what Gerard might freak out about, but he definitely wanted to do whatever he could to comfort Gerard, and really, he would do just about anything for Ray at this point.

"Alright, I have to go then. Frank, I can stop by and pick you up after I get off work, I'm worried about you walking home, I don't want you getting hurt again," and Ray was out the door before Frank could protest about his knee injuries.

Frank slid back down, pulling the blankets back up over his shoulder. He turned on his side and looked to see Gerard just idly watching him.

Gerard held his gaze for a moment before letting his eyes fall. "I'm sorry," He whispered.

"Why?" Frank was confused as to what Gerard could possibly be sorry for.

"I don't know." He raised his eyes to look back at Frank. "I'm confused by a lot of things recently."

Frank wished he understood exactly what Gerard was saying, but he didn't. It was almost funny to Frank that Gerard was saying he was confused about things when Frank was the one that just found out vampires were real last night, but he didn't say that. He just laid there, quietly looking back at Gerard as he arranged his thoughts, forever in awe of how beautiful he was.

"Can I kiss you?" Gerard's voice was barely audible.

That question surprised Frank more than anything else had in the past few days. He looked Gerard's face over, trying to understand where this was coming from, but the only thing he found in his eyes was nervous anticipation of an answer. He didn't understand why Gerard asked Frank to kiss him, but he knew that he had wanted to kiss Gerard for some time now. Frank whispered back "yes," before he could convince himself that he was still asleep and this was just a dream. The feeling of Gerard's hand gently resting on his jaw was proof enough that this was not, in fact, a dream, and the soft pressure of fingertips on the back of his neck drew his face closer to Gerard's.