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Frank had Lily sitting on his knee, proudly watching the positive feedback on Lily’s song, reading to her a few of the less explicit ones. She giggled happily, and gavin Frank the biggest hug she could manage. “Thank you Daddy!” She chirped, and Frank kissed the top of her head, letting her run off when she started squirming in his grip. He stayed on the computer for a little while, answering a few tweets, before he was going to log off, when something caught his eye.
Oh, that was… unexpected, Was the first thought that ran through Franks head, but when he paused to think about, it really wasn’t that surprising, he did spend almost twelve years of his life with the guy, and they were still on good terms. He smiled slightly at the tweet, before closing the laptop, tucking his phone into his pocket, and running up the stairs, where he saw Cherry standing there waiting for him.
“Pizza!” She shouted as he swooped her up into his arms.
“You want pizza for dinner? Again?” Frank said, tickling her tummy and causing her to squirm in his arms, giggling in a high pitched voice that would have made Franks ears ring if he wasn’t used to it.
“Of course!” She replied once she could talk again, and Frank nodded slightly in agreement.
“Yeah, pizza does sound really good right now.” He quickly raced around the house, Cherry still in his arms as he informed Miles and Lily of the decision. They both cheered, and ran out of the house. It was up to Frank to make sure the kids were fed and put to bed on time, and basically didn’t die, since Jamia was with family. He piled the kids into the car, and made sure they were safely buckled into before getting in himself, and starting towards their favourite pizza place. On the way there, his phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out, glancing at the caller ID. Gerard Way, it read in bold text, and with a little bit of nervousness, he clicked accept call.
“Hello?” He asked cheerfully, grinning at Miles who was staring at him through the mirror.
“Hey Frank!” Gerard said, sounding cheerful. “I just wanted to call and tell Lily and Cherry that I loved their song!” He continued without pause, and Frank sent a gaze over the backseat, where all of the kids were staring at him expectantly.
“Well, they’re all wondering who I’m talking to, so you could tell them yourself.” Frank said, trying to keep the slight bitter tone he had taken. He started a mantra in his head, telling himself not to be angry, it was almost a year ago now. He clicked the phone onto speaker, and placed it on the bump between the passenger seat and the driver seat, and started focusing on driving.
“Hello?” Gerard said after a moment of silence.
“Yeah, go ahead, sorry.”
“Um, hey guys?” Gerard said awkwardly, but Lily quickly took over for him.
“HI GERARD!” She yelled, and Frank winced slightly, preparing himself for Cherry to do the same, and Miles to try and copy them, which they did with great enthusiasm.
"Hey guys, I just wanted to tell you how much I liked your song!” He replied after a moment of regular phone call lag. Lily grinned widely at the phone, leaning forward to try and grab it, but Frank pulled it back towards his side, not exactly trusting her not to break it by accident.
“THANK YOU GEE!” She yelled again, and Frank sighed.
“You know he can hear you when you talk normally?” He asked, and Lily giggled again, Cherry joining in after a minute. “I bet you must have worked very hard on it, huh?” Gerard asked over their giggles, and Lily nodded.
“Uh huh! But Daddy helped us, so it was okay!” Frank grinned at Cherry’s excited tone of voice, and Gerard chuckled.
“I’m sure he did, he’s so good with you guys.” Gerard said, before continuing. “Speaking of your dad, I wanted to talk with him privately for a bit, if that’s okay?” Frank froze up for a moment, and Cherry noticed.
“He doesn’t want to talk to you!” She sang, and Frank sent her a glare, before grabbing the phone from the middle and taking it off speaker, holding it to his ear.
“Kids say the darndest things, don’t they?” Frank said, and Gerard laughed openly.
“I know right? Bandit said the best superhero was Batman last night.” Frank chuckled, then became curious.
“But you wanted to talk to me about something?” He asked, a little concerned. It wasn’t like him and Gerard didn’t talk, they did, but they usually kept the conversation to a minimum.
“Yeah. I was uh…” Gerard paused, and Frank gave him a moment to figure out what he was going to say. “I was going to say, I really liked the song, and I… I miss you. I miss being with you almost everyday, and playing music with you, and being able to talk without all this tension. I just. I called to tell you, I want to get the band-”
“Gerard, stop. I can’t do that. I’ve just come to the terms that it’s over. I’m getting back on my own two feet.”
“But you don’t need to, if we get it back together. We can do it all over again, I know we can. I miss you, Frank.”
“We don’t have to be in the band to hang out Gerard. Plus, it hasn’t even been a year yet. I can’t, okay? Because I know that one day it’s going to break up again, and I don’t think I could handle that again. Look, I got to go. Call me later or whatever.” Frank said, and hung up quickly. Lily and Cherry were staring at him, while Miles was babbling away. “Alright, let’s go get some pizza!” Frank said, turning on his ‘everything is fine, I’m happy!’ smile and voice. The kids fell for it, and started trying to open the thankfully childlocked doors. Frank got out and felt his phone buzz in his pocket, but didn’t check it until they were all seated at a table.
“Coffee sometime? -G”
“Fine with me, tomorrow at four? I can get a babysitter by then.”
“Bring the kids, Bandit hasn’t had a playdate in a while. -G” Frank sighed, and glanced up at Lily and Cherry.
“Do you guys want to go see Bandit tomorrow?” He asked, and the two girls heads shot up from their plate, and they both nodded eagerly, beginning to jump up and down in their seat. Frank tried to calm them down, but to no avail. Even Miles looked excited, though he probably didn’t remember Bandit that well, considering last time they were there, the girls had locked themselves in her room and talked about three year old stuff. Frank had been worried they would get hurt, but it had turned out fine in the end.
“Lily and Cherry are giving me no choice. What about Lindsay? I would bring Jamia, but she’s visiting family.” Frank waited a bit to reply, taking a bite of his own pizza.
“Same with Lindsey, it’ll just be me and you. -G” Oh great, more chance for awkwardly bringing up the past. Frank thought, but quickly shoved the thought away. Gerard was still his friend, even if they had their problems.
“Alright, see you then!” Frank turned his phone on silent after that, shoved his worries to the back of his head, and began to eat his pizza.