Work Text:
The entirety of the school was in one long, drawn out groan as they walked in the day after the Christmas holidays. None of the students missed an opportunity to complain about the holidays ending, except, strangely, Frank.
After his little physical outburst before the holidays, he and Stephen had grown considerably closer, so to speak. The students who hadn’t been at the show, or heard about it via Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat, were incredibly confused at Frank’s unwavering smile on that cold, dreary Monday morning. He was loitering around the school entrance, like he usually did, but he wasn’t terrorising anybody, not even Joe. He looked full of anticipation as he stared down the road that led to the school, and all students walking towards him looked terrified before they realised that he wasn’t looking at them. He spotted Stephen’s legs before he saw the rest of him, long as they were. His smile, impossibly, grew, and he awkwardly half jogged towards him, meeting him a few houses away from the school. Stephen was sashaying, head down, ear phones in, clearly listening to Beyoncé or some other Queen-like female artist. Looking at how fast he was tapping his fingers against his hips as he walked, it was more likely to be Nicki Minaj.
How Frank had learned Stephen’s habits so quickly in the week they had spent together away from school, he did not know. He then remembered the copious amount of time he spent staring at him before the Christmas play, and his question was answered.
He stopped in front of him, waving one hand in front of his eyes. Stephen looked up at Frank and smiled warmly, turning off his music.
“Hey babes, good holiday?” Stephen asked, smile still curling his lips.
“I spent most of it with you innit. It was great.” Frank mumbled, blushing. He still wasn’t used to the whole ‘boyfriends’ thing, but he was getting better at opening up when they were in private. This was not one of those times, but he was working on it.
“Aww,” Stephen put a hand on his heart theatrically. “I’m glad you find me so wonderful, you’re not so bad yourself!” He giggled. Frank melted inside; Stephen’s giggle was the lethal poison to his hard-ass persona.
“So, er... What are we doing about...? Us? At school?” Frank muttered, pulling Stephen to one side of the pavement, out of the way of other students who probably thought that Stephen was going to kick him in the face again.
“Whatever you want babes. You want to be out and proud, I can definitely help with that. If you want to be private, so be it.” Stephen said, as serious as he could be when he could see year sevens were walking out into the road to avoid Frank. He couldn’t help thinking that if they saw what Frank was like when he was alone with him, they wouldn’t be nearly as scared of him. Stephen smiled reassuringly at Frank while he made up his mind, eyebrows rising as Frank took a deep breath.
“I want people to know. I’m... I’m not ashamed. So why should I hide it?” Frank said slowly, nodding to himself as he said it.
“We are a lot more similar than I previously thought.” Stephen smiled proudly, his eyes welling up.
“Plus you’re hot as fuck and I want people to be jealous.” Frank added as an afterthought, grinning.
“That’s my boy.” Stephen laughed, linking their hands together. “Care to walk me to class?”
... ... ...
As they walked through the corridors, hand in hand, there were more than whispers around them. Stephen was pretty sure someone took a photo of them. He wasn’t quite sure at the time, but he posed for the shot anyway.
They passed a few of Frank’s friends on their way, and to Stephen’s surprise they received friendly nods, and one year 10 girl gave Frank a high five, gesturing to Stephen and miming fanning herself before catching up with her friends. Frank grinned for a while after this; he clearly wasn’t actually expecting to make someone jealous.
Stephen began to dread reaching the Form K classroom; he was enjoying the attention in the corridors far too much. Plus he would miss the feeling of Frank’s hand in his for the long hour that he would spend without him. Stephen was shocked at how quickly he had grown attached to Frank, but he wasn’t questioning it, just accepting and being thankful for it.
They, far too quickly, soon turned the corner into the corridor where the Form K classroom resided. The door was open, and the pupils were ever-so-slowly trickling into the room. Stephen slowed their pace, squeezing Frank’s hand a little more, and he squeezed back. He wasn’t nervous, obviously, because all of Form K was watching when Frank kissed him. It wasn’t the relationship itself that would be the problem for them; it was the group’s general animosity towards Frank.
He decided to do what he did best, be incredibly, and unapologetically, really, really gay.
He pulled softly on Frank’s hand, walking him up to the door way of the classroom, already cueing quiet jeers from Mitchell and Rem Dogg. Their opinions didn’t matter, however, as Stephen was absolutely positive that they were shagging.
He took Frank’s other hand and pulled him into a soft goodbye kiss, rubbing one of Frank’s knuckles with his thumb. He pulled away after a few seconds, laughing quietly at a red faced Frank. No matter if they were alone, or in public, Frank still got cutely embarrassed whenever Stephen kissed him. Stephen heard Chantelle squeal excitedly from inside the classroom, and the clack of her heels as she jumped up and down.
“Bye.” Stephen said quietly, letting go of Frank’s hands.
“Bye.” Frank replied, still dazed. He glanced inside the classroom to see Alfie covering his eyes with a look of subtle grossed-out-ness on his face. Frank smiled quickly at Stephen before stalking inside, walking straight up to Alfie. Alfie took his hand away from his face, only to scream a little when he saw Frank right in front of him.
“If you have a problem with me and Stephen, I will tie your bollocks to the back of a car and put a block of concrete on the accelerator, got it?”
“... Yup.”