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“Frank?” Gerard strained his eyes to see a little better. He could really use night vision now. “Come back, please.” The parking lot was nearly completely dark, the dim glow from the streetlight over in the far corner of barely any use. “Leave it alone.” He rubbed his arms. It had gotten too chilly way too quickly and he regretted having come out here in just his shirt. He should just quit smoking, it wasn’t worth it to freeze your face off at nights after shows.
“No, Gee, I’m telling you, maybe he needs help. I’m not just gonna leave him here.” Frank took a careful step closer to the big dog hiding in the bushes. They’d only noticed it because Frank had been too wound-up to smoke by the venue’s back door and had insisted they needed to take a little walk across the parking lot. Such a dumb fucking idea.
Frank had been the first to see it. They’d both heard the leaves rustling, but he’d been the one to investigate. Gerard couldn’t see much, but the animal seemed to be huge. It was probably a dog that’d been abandoned when it’d become too big for its owners. Gerard felt for it, but he didn’t want Frank to put himself in danger. You had to be careful with wild animals.
There was a high whine from the bushes that turned into a short, sharp bark. “Seriously, leave it alone. You don’t know if there’s anything wrong with it.” Gerard took a step towards Frank, craning his neck to get a clearer view of the dog.
“He needs our help even more if he’s injured or sick.” Frank held out his hand and bent forward to make himself smaller. He took another step towards the dog.
Gerard could see it more clearly now. It really was huge, unnaturally tall for a dog, with a big head. The coat was a brownish black, the eyes reflected what little light reached them. It was crouching, ears flat against the head and back arched. Gerard shivered. The dog growled lowly, then snarled and showed its teeth. Gerard froze. “Frank, I mean it. Please. It’s afraid. Don’t get hurt,” he whispered desperately.
“I’m not gonna get hurt, Gee. I just wanna—” Frank took another small step and suddenly the dog shot out of its hiding place. Gerard saw it happen in slow motion.
The dog pounced on Frank, snapped at him, and caught his lower leg between its massive jaws. Frank yelped and fell to the ground, clutching the bite. The dog whined and bolted, fast like black lightning.
An hour later, Gerard was chewing his nails while he waited outside the examination room. They’d immediately driven Frank to the hospital. According to the doctor, the bite itself wasn’t deep or dangerous – the dog had probably just tried to warn them – but since they didn’t know anything about it, she had insisted on giving Frank the rabies shot. It sounded absurd, but while Gerard fucking hated needles, he was more than relieved that Frank was in good hands. He didn’t want to imagine what could have happened tonight if the dog had been more aggressive. At least today had been their last show and Frank could rest and get well at home. Damn him and his absolute inability to stop himself from trying to pet every single dog he met.
“It’s gonna be fine, Gee,” Ray tried to soothe him. “They’re taking care of everything. He’ll just need to take it slow for a few days—”
“That’s gonna be difficult enough,” Mikey interjected.
“—and everything will be alright again. Try not no worry.” Gerard let him squeeze his cold hand.
“You weren’t there. That thing was a fucking beast, it—” Gerard startled when the door opened and Frank walked out. On crutches and with a huge grin on his face. Gerard in contrast still felt like he was going to faint any minute. He leaped off his seat and crushed Frank in a hug.
“Whoa, hey, Gee. Careful, I’m an invalid now,” Frank joked.
Gerard squeezed him hard enough to make him gasp for breath. “You fucking scared me, you asshole.”
Frank said nothing but rubbed the side of his face against Gerard like a cat.
A moment later, Ray’s hand settled on Gerard’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go home. We don’t need to do this here.”
Ray was right. Gerard heaved a sigh and let go of Frank. “Never do that again.”
Gerard tried to be angry at Frank, but it was futile. He was too worried and if he was being honest, he couldn’t be mad at him for trying to help an animal that might have been in need anyway. Frank loved to act like a little shit and make a nuisance of himself, but Gerard knew he had a heart of gold and he loved and admired him for it.
Gerard lay awake in his bed and couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned, but his thoughts kept circling back to Frank. They’d given him something against the pain so that hopefully wasn’t a problem, but he probably felt alone. He’d been attacked and all. He could probably use some company.
Gerard put his blanket around his shoulders like a cape and tiptoed over to Frank’s room. He opened the door a crack, trying not to make any noise, and tried to make Frank out in the darkness. “Frank? You still awake?” he whispered.
“Gee?” Frank sounded groggy. Maybe he had already been sleeping after all. “Why are you still up?” He clicked on his bedside lamp and squinted against the sudden brightness.
Gerard squeezed through the door and shuffled over. “Can’t sleep.” He halted in front of the bed.
Frank’s eyes were tiny and a bit swollen. He scooted over until there was enough space next to him for Gerard. “Climb in.”
Gerard lay down beside him with his blanket and turned off the lamp. Silence fell over them. “You really scared me,” he said softly. He couldn’t forget the dog’s sharp teeth, the harsh barking. What if it had only fled because Frank hadn’t been alone and it hadn’t seen a chance to overwhelm him? A cold shiver ran down Gerard’s spine.
“I’m fine, Gee,” Frank reassured him. “You’ll see. Just a few days and I’ll be good as new.”
Gerard hoped it. He spooned up behind Frank and put his arm around his waist. Frank took his hand and a minute later, they were both asleep.
It seemed that Gerard’s worries had been unnecessary. He dutifully helped Frank take care of the wound, but it healed surprisingly fast. Even the doctor hadn’t expected it to get better so quickly. Gerard made sure that Ray or Mikey drove Frank to his appointments since he had three more shots to get and Gerard couldn’t make himself watch that even though he insisted Frank couldn’t go on his own. By the time Frank got the last shot two weeks after the incident, there was nothing left to see of the bite wound anymore.
The problems started about another week later. At breakfast, Ray noticed that Frank was unusually pale and over the course of just a few hours, his condition worsened. It began with a sore throat and at first Gerard thought it was the flu, but over the next few days, Frank developed a high fever that just wouldn’t go down. He kept scratching at his skin and drinking more water than even during the hottest summer months on tour.
They were all worried, but most of all Gerard. What if the vax hadn’t worked or if it was some other kind of infection? Gerard should have pushed Frank harder to leave that damn dog alone. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if Frank had caught something serious.
Frank refused to go to the doctor and was generally acting weird. He stayed in his room all day and didn’t want anyone there with him, even though he normally hated being alone when he was sick.
When Frank started coughing, Gerard insisted on staying with him overnight. Enough was enough. If his shitty lungs decided to make problems again, Gerard was prepared to force him to get examined. He was sure Ray and Mikey would back him up on it.
When the time came, Frank didn’t even complain. He was weak and sickly, a shadow of himself. Gerard’s heart sunk. He brushed the sweaty, unwashed hair out of Frank’s face and hummed him to sleep. When Frank’s breathing and coughing calmed, Gerard thought it was safe enough for him to catch some z’s as well.
Gerard was way too tired to be awake again. He didn’t even open his eyes when he woke up, he just turned around onto his other side and burrowed deeper into the blankets. It was unusually warm. It kind of smelled weird when he realized he was still in Frank’s bed. Frank. Gerard decided to open his eyes after all.
He nearly got a heart attack. Next to him on the mattress wasn’t Frank. Gerard was looking into the yellow eyes of a huge fucking dog. He blinked. The dog didn’t disappear. Not even when he rubbed his eyes.
The dog had a big round head, a long snout, and triangle ears. It looked kind of like a husky, but the coat was more brown than white and not as fine. The dog tilted its head and the tongue lolled out. There was a rhythmic thumping from where its tail hit the bed. Gerard and the dog stared at each other.
When the dog didn’t… do anything else, Gerard carefully looked around. The room looked the same it had the day before, nothing was out of place. On closer inspection though, the shredded sleeve of Frank’s sleep shirt was pinned under one of the dog’s paws. Gerard felt his heart beat out of his chest.
The dog looked at Gerard with big, soulful eyes, lowered its head, and stretched towards him, sniffing his face. Gerard stopped breathing. The dog gave him a quick little lick and panted in his face, waiting for a reaction.
Gerard sat up and the dog followed. It put a paw on Gerard’s thigh and whined. Under its body were more of Frank’s destroyed clothes. Gerard swallowed. “F…Frank?” he asked hesitantly.
The dog’s demeanor changed completely. It thumped its tail harder in excitement, nudged Gerard with its muzzle, and gave a happy little bark. The panting got faster and the corners of its mouth lifted as if it was smiling.
Gerard was dumbfounded. He reached out on autopilot and carefully stroked the dog’s shoulder. A moment later, the dog had pinned him to the bed and was enthusiastically licking his face.
Things changed after that. For a few days every month, Frank-the-human turned into Frankie-the-wolf. They’d tried feeding him dog food at first, then raw meat, but he’d just briefly sniffed at both and then sneezed and turned away, his nose twitching in disgust. Now they got him steamed vegetables instead. The first time he’d wolfed down his veggies, Mikey had burst out laughing and not stopped until Frankie was done. He still giggled every time it was his turn to feed him.
“It’s ridiculous, okay,” he’d explained. “He’s a fucking wolf. I mean, he’s small for one, but he’s still massive, he’s a dangerous predator and all, but all he eats are plants. How is that not the funniest thing you’ve seen all day?”
Frank as a wolf was even more playful than he was as a human. He spent hours fetching sticks in the yard that Gerard, Mikey, or Ray threw for him. He rolled around in the dirt and any weird-smelling substance he could find, and then Gerard and Ray had to catch him and hose him down. It was hilarious; at least Mikey and Gerard thought so. Frank always took the longest showers and used way too much deodorant after turning back into a human.
He was even more cuddly than usual during the days leading up to the shift and normally slept in Mikey’s or Gerard’s bed the night before he turned. Ray had thrown him out with the explanation that he a) didn’t want some naked guy in his bed and b) didn’t want dog hair in there either. Neither Gerard nor Mikey minded.
“I’m not some random naked dude, Ray,” Frank had grinned.
“I still don’t want your fluffy butt anywhere near my stuff.”
“It’s only fluffy when I’m a wolf.”
“I think we should talk about something other than your butt. Like the time Gerard snarled at you when you wouldn’t stop annoying him while he was busy painting his nails pink and you flinched away in full-on submission, crouching, flattening your ears, and tucking your tail.” Frank gasped as in trying to interrupt, but Ray barreled on. “I know what your body language means, I researched this shit. Face it, Frankie. You submitted to pink nail polish.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, that never happened.”
“Don’t deny it, I saw what I saw.” Ray ruffled Frank’s hair, ending the argument. Especially on the days before the shift, Frank was weak to being petted and stroked.
Keeping the wolf entertained was a job for all three of the remaining humans. Frankie wanted constant attention and entertainment. It started in the morning when he poked and nudged at them until Gerard or Mikey woke up and gave him sleepy chin scritches and ended two days later when they woke up with a naked, tired, and decidedly human Frank in their arms. At least that had stopped being awkward after the first few times.
The two days in between were spent keeping Frankie from shredding the furniture out of boredom.
Mikey had started trying to teach Frankie tricks as a joke, but it had actually been a lot of fun and they were a pretty good team now. Frankie knew how to give paw (his paws were nearly as big as Mikey’s hands), sit up and beg (Mikey had tried this command with Frank after he’d turned back into a human, but it sadly hadn’t worked), and roll over (although he preferred to stay on his back and get belly rubs instead). Gerard had taught him how to fetch items, most notably pencils and the TV remote. Wiping his paws was a trick that was still a work in progress.
Their big backyard came in really handy. Frankie loved running around in it and sniffing everything, to the amusement of everyone else. Gerard had bought the biggest tug toy he could find at the store, but it hadn’t lasted long. These days, they simply used a thick, sturdy rope, but even when Ray, Gerard, and Mikey pulled together, Frankie was the uncontested champion of tug-of-war.
Gerard had also brought back a huge harness, just for shits and giggles. He hadn’t believed Frankie would actually let them put it on him, but he’d surprised them by going wild for walkies. They’d had to come up with a way to explain why they had a huge fuck-off dog, but at least people tended not to ask too many questions when he started sniffing them. For the record, Frankie was a wolf dog hybrid for anyone who asked.
One thing they’d both quickly started to enjoy was Gerard brushing Frankie’s fur. Frankie would sit or lie down, turn around, and hold still in whatever position Gerard wanted while Gerard brushed him and told him what a good boy he was. It was endearing. There was video evidence.
The newest discovery was that Frankie would sing along if Ray played for him. Well, it was more howling, whining, and whimpering, but it was still fun.
“Well, this is the House of Wolves alright,” Gerard giggled. “We should bring Frankie to a gig, make him the lead singer for a tour.”
Mikey’s lips curled up into a smile. “I bet he’d love the attention. Give stage diving a whole new meaning, get all the pets.”
They watched and listened for a minute. Frankie was sitting in front of Ray, chest out and neck arched, putting his everything into it.
“Brian would kill us,” Gerard mused.
Mikey looked at him. “Oh god, you were seriously considering it!”
“Of course not!” Gerard bit his lip. “Maybe a little,” he admitted.
Mikey shook his head. “I can’t believe you sometimes.”
Shifted days all ended the same way. Frankie sat down in the living room and howled until his whole pack was assembled (Gerard had joined him in his yowling once and Frankie’s facial expression had been absolutely priceless), herded them to the couch, and gave his best impression of a lapdog, squirming around on his back, demanding belly rubs and trying to lick everyone’s faces.
It was a pretty good life, all in all, Gerard thought, burying his hands in Frankie’s soft fur and getting slobber all over his face for his troubles.