Chapter Text
It's the morning of October 1st, and Frank is starting his day off with a bang. Literally.
A set of pipes, or something to do with the plumbing in his dorm bathroom—he was never very useful around the house so he couldn't tell the difference—had burst when he tried to turn the shower on. Now, he stands in front of the door of his neighbor across the hall, drenched from head to toe like he had just escaped a tornado. Silently, he thanks every god out there that no one else other than his neighbor has to see him like this.
He sighs heavily, his shoulders caving in embarrassment as he asks, “Can I use your shower? Mine just exploded and now I feel about ten times dirtier than I did before.”
Gerard, the boy across the hall, stands in the doorway unsure of what to say. His expression is blank and still, because this certainly wasn’t what he was expecting to wake up to at 7:30am on a Tuesday. “Uh, sure?” He answers.
“Thanks,” Frank steps into Gerard’s dorm room a little too quickly, still desperately not wanting to be seen in this state.
“D’you know where it is?” Gerard asks, the door clicking into place behind him.
“Yeah,” He says, standing in the middle of Gerard’s room like a deer in headlights, unsure of what to do with himself. “The layout of every room is the same.”
They’ve never spoken before, and on top of that Frank has only seen him once or twice in the library late at night, with circles around his eyes so dark they could rival the dead. It's not like Gerard was some sort of serial killer hiding in plain sight, as the possibility of that was slim to none. Still, this was the first time they'd ever exchanged anything more than a quick glance at each other in the wee hours of the night among aisles and aisles of books..
“Okay. Well, I’m gonna make myself some coffee and call the maintenance team. You want some?” He turns to click the button on the coffee machine, and the smell of fresh coffee brewing fills the room with a deep, warming sensation.
“Yes please.” The sides of Frank’s mouth turn upwards at the offer, and he sets off for the bathroom. The less time he wastes standing in the middle of Gerard’s dorm room, the less time he has to wait to get some coffee in his system.
As the sound of the coffee brewing and the running shower fill every crevice of Gerard’s room, his mind wanders and he keeps himself busy by doodling in a notepad on the kitchen counter. Water wasn’t flooding out of Frank’s room, so there wasn’t much of a rush to call the maintenance. He didn’t quite feel up to the task of making conversation this early in the morning before his coffee, anyway. He was surprised by his ability to form whole sentences in front of Frank before coffee. Anymore than what had already been said, and today might’ve ended up being a nonverbal day for Gerard.
Frank emerges from the bathroom no more than 15 minutes later, fully dressed with a green towel draped around his neck. Gerard does his best not to notice the way each rivulet of water trails down from Frank's hair onto his neck. Instead, he averts his gaze and stares into his coffee cup, as though the answers to the universe lie within the brown liquid. He left a cup out for Frank while he was in the shower, so Frank poured himself a full cup of coffee, downing almost the entire thing in one swing of his arm.
“I can’t tell if you were thirsty, or if you just really like coffee,” Gerard let himself have a single glance at Frank, no more than a second before staring back into his cup. “Or maybe both."
“I think a mix of both would be correct."
Frank sighed, his shoulders caving in again, trying his best not to think about how shitty this made the rest of his day look.
“Um, I figured it might be a better idea to have you call the maintenance team. Since it’s your shower that exploded and all that.” Gerard began running his finger along the rim of his cup to ease his mind. The only person to ever come into his dorm room was Mikey, but that was a given since Mikey is his younger brother. As much as Frank seemed like a decent guy, it didn’t do much to reduce Gerard’s general fear of other people in his dorm room.
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that.” He sighed again, and downed the rest of his coffee, setting the cup in the sink.
Gerard wasn’t sure what this feeling he was getting meant, but things weren’t looking too great about this whole situation. His biggest concern right now was the fact that if they couldn’t fix it quick enough, Frank would have to stay in Gerard’s room for the time being. He could share a space, that much was easy, since he’d shared a room with Mikey for quite a few years. But Frank was a stranger, someone Gerard had only stolen glances at in the library, or around campus when they happened to be near each other.
If Frank really did have to stay with Gerard while he waited to get his shower fixed, Mikey was going to have a field day with making fun of his older brother about it.
-
Gerard let out a groan, his head planting onto the library table. What he feared from the beginning had come to pass. Frank was going to stay in Gerard’s room while the maintenance crew fixed his shower; apparently it wasn’t an easy fix. As he, Mikey, and their best friend Ray sat at a large round library table, Mikey had already begun teasing him endlessly about the whole ordeal.
“ So ,” Mikey began, dragging out the syllable, resting his head on his hand, “Is he cute?”
“Mikey, that is not the issue here.” Gerard snaps, careful to keep the volume of his voice down.
“Ray, back me up on this one, please?” Mikey nudged Ray, whining and giving him the classic puppy dog Mikey eyes.
“I’m not backing you up on anything until I finish my project proposal. Even then, it’s a maybe.” He said, not looking up from his laptop and large pile of papers.
“You’re no fun,” Mikey pouted and crossed his arms, faking being upset.
“Not gonna work, Mikes. I have more mental strength than you’d like to think.”
“If you two are done flirting,” Gerard began, catching the attention of both boys, “I’m having the worst day in the history of worst days.”
“No you're not, you’re just having a gay panic.” Mikey sat up straight and smirked.
“Oh, gee thanks, Mikey. You’re a big help in that department.”
“I actually am, thank you for noticing. I’m trying to get a promotion, but the boss wants me to try the Pining Department. I shot that idea down before he even finished his pitch, though.”
“I can’t believe I have to put up with you on a semi-daily basis.”
“At least you’re not dating him,” Ray chimed in, his bright smile stealing the show.
“Why am I getting ganged up on when Gerard is the one who has to share a room with a possibly hot guy for the unforeseeable future until they fix said possibly hot guy’s shower?”
“That right there,” Ray let out a laugh, deep from within his chest, “That’s why.”
“Whatever,” Mikey leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back legs. “You guys just wait. They’ll probably fall in love before the end of the week knowing Gerard’s hopeless romantic bullshit.”
“Wow. I couldn’t ask for a better brother, could I?” Gerard deadpanned, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Nope!” Mikey grinned, popping the P, knowing just how much he was getting on his brother’s nerves, and loving every minute of it.
“You should’ve been eaten by a tiger that time we went to the zoo and you accidentally fell into the enclosure.”
“Words hurt you know,” Mikey made a shocked face, pressing his open palm to his chest. “I could’ve left you for dead when your senior prom date ditched you because you couldn’t keep your eyes off your English teacher’s TA.”
“Dude!” Gerard yelled, almost immediately regretting it as he was met with at least 3 people telling him to shut up. “You’re the worst. Is nothing held sacred?” He asked, throwing his hands in the air.
“Probably. I’ll get back to you on that in 3 to 5 business days, though.” Mikey gave Gerard a devilish grin, while Ray rolled his eyes beside him and continued scribbling words onto the paper he was brainstorming with.
“Sometimes I wonder why God decided to punish me and make you my brother.”
Gerard let his head fall onto the library table yet again, drowning out the quiet chatter of Mikey and Ray with his portable CD player. He only had one and it was Disintegration by The Cure. It probably wasn’t going to help his already shit mood, but it was all he had on him, and it was better than nothing.
-
The RA had given Frank a key to Gerard’s room after the bombshell was dropped on Gerard that he would have to share his room. The whole ordeal wasn’t all that bad, but in his last 3 years in college, he’d never had a roommate. For whatever reason he was always the odd man out, though that hadn’t ever been an issue for him (more space for his comic collection, actually). Gerard sighed as he entered his dorm, slipping his bag off his shoulder and onto the floor.
“Let’s hope this doesn’t take all fucking year.” He grumbled to himself.
“Well now that you said that, it’s not gonna get fixed until May.” Frank’s voice traveled from the couch, causing Gerard to jump backwards at the sound.
“Jesus Christ,” He said, hand plastered over his chest in genuine shock. That was not something he was going to get used to easily.
“I prefer Frank, actually.”
Gerard rolled his eyes like they were going to disappear into the back of his head. This was not going to be fun.
“You’d get along great with my brother with a sarcasm meter that high.” Gerard stated, making his way over to the coffee machine. He hadn’t consumed nearly enough coffee to make it through studying tonight.
“Huh,” Frank replied, as though actually considering what Gerard had remarked.
“Huh?” Gerard echoed, confused by the single syllable response.
“I’m an only child so when people talk about their siblings it always seems like such a foreign topic. What’s it like?” He turned to sit on the arm of the couch and face Gerard as he spoke.
“Uh,” Gerard started, though completely unsure of how to describe having a sibling to someone who’s never had one. “I’m not really sure, honestly. Mikey’s just barely a few years younger than me, and we’ve always been into similar things. I know some siblings aren’t like that, though.”
“You’re one of the lucky ones then, huh?” Frank smiled and cocked his head to the side.
“I guess so.” Gerard hadn’t been looking directly at Frank throughout the entire conversation, but the way Frank’s hair just barely dangled off the side of his shoulder made Gerard’s chest feel tight.
The coffee machine beeped to signal it was done brewing just in time to pull Gerard away from staring at each individual strand of hair on Frank’s head. He cleared his throat and poured a large cup for himself, adding a single ice cube to cool it down just a bit.
“Well,” Frank began, stepping off the arm of the couch and stretching—during which time Gerard was absolutely not staring and the sliver of skin that shone from beneath Frank’s skeleton hoodie. “I have to go to work now. Unfortunately, Corporate America awaits.”
Gerard made a sort of snorting laugh in reply to this statement. “Just remember not to become part of ‘The Family’, Frank.”
“Will do!” Frank shouted on his way out the door.
Maybe sharing his dorm room wouldn’t be so bad after all. If Gerard could keep his eyes away from Frank, that is. There were far too many things about Frank that were incredibly distracting. The way he smiled, the way he laughed with his whole chest, deep and proud. The way the ends of his hair just danced along his shoulders, and his tattoos that snaked from underneath his hoodie sleeves. Gerard was going to have his hands full with this whole situation, he could already tell.
And he knew if he said anything about Frank to Mikey, the teasing would never stop.
Gerard sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m really in the shit now.”
-
When Frank came home from work, Gerard was in his own little world in his bedroom, attempting to rearrange his comic collection and assortment of art supplies to make room for Frank. Though he wasn’t having much luck, and it was starting to irritate him. He probably needed to get rid of some stuff, but thinking about parting with any of them, well, it would probably be easier to just stab himself in the neck.
Frank leaned in through the doorway, knocking as he entered, hoping not to startle Gerard again. “Need some help?” He asked, flashing a friendly smile.
“As long as you don’t try to convince me to get rid of any of my comics, then sure.” Gerard replied through a sigh and a half smile.
“Trust me, I’m just as bad. I don’t have a collection of comics, but I think I’ve got about the same amount of guitar gear in my room.” He laughed as he finished his sentence, deep from within his chest. “If it helps to ease your mind, I’m really good at cleaning and organizing stuff. We can sort them if you want, and then put them away.”
“Yeah, that works,” He plopped himself in front of the storage bin, and pulled out the few comics he’d already put away.
“How do you want them sorted? By date? By genre? It’s up to you.”
“I think sorting them by author and then by issue date would be good, if that’s okay?” Gerard looked up at Frank for approval, and realized far too late how close they really were.
Frank was leaning down next to Gerard, but their faces were so close when he looked up, he was surprised they didn’t accidentally kiss each other. Given the soft shade of pink that began to spread across Frank’s face, Gerard guessed they were probably both thinking the same thing.
“Um,” Frank began, straightening himself out before bending over again to sit next to Gerard. “We can organize them whatever way makes the most sense to you.”
“Okay. Sounds good.” Gerard stared down at his hands, as he finished his sentence. Even if for whatever reason Frank found him attractive in any way, he didn’t even know how to be friends with people. Mikey and Ray didn’t really count because Mikey was his brother, and Ray had been his best friend since right before they’d both started college. Speaking of the two idiot lovebirds, there wasn’t a single doubt in Gerard’s mind that they weren’t going to show up at some point tonight and crash on Gerard’s living room couch. Again. As usual.
Gerard sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose—he dreaded the fact that he knew he’d be doing this a lot in the coming days and maybe even weeks. The room was far too silent; the sound of rustling comic pages and Frank’s soft breathing felt like a pounding drum beat in his ears. He got to his feet and searched through his CD collection tucked in a box underneath his bed.
Frank’s curiosity got the best of him when he heard the familiar clicking sound of CD cases. He leaned back against his hands and asked, “You got any Bouncing Souls in that box of treasures?”
“I think that’s one of the CD’s that Mikey borrowed and hasn’t given back in over 6 months, so most likely not.”
Frank scooted along the floorboards to get a little closer, peering into the box, wondering if there was anything that would catch his eye. He made a sound that was somewhere between a gasp of excitement and a squeal, reaching in and grabbing a CD almost immediately.
“What’d you find?”
“Mellon Collie! I haven’t listened to it in a while, but I love this album.” Frank beamed at Gerard as he spoke, and Gerard was almost blinded by the intensity of Frank’s smile.
“I’ve got a CD player over there,” He pointed to a slim device sitting on top of his dresser, with 2 speakers on either side of it. “I don’t think there’s anything in it right now. I took out Disintegration earlier and brought it with me to class without realizing that’s what I’d grabbed. Definitely not one of my finer moments.”
“No wonder you looked depressed today,” Frank teased, placing the disk in its holder. Gerard made a face like he was offended by Frank’s comment. “You were listening to Disintegration all day long, dude. I’m surprised I came back here and you were still alive.” This got a chuckle out of Gerard, which in turn loosened up Frank, who smiled back.
They continued like this for some time, teasing each other about the other’s music taste, occasionally bickering about who got a turn to play a specific song from Gerard’s CD collection. At some point they’d gotten to talking about deeper topics—what they wanted out of college, their plans for the future afterwards, etc. Gerard was reluctant at first to admit he was scared to graduate, but Frank managed to weasel it out of him with that smile of his that shone brighter than the sun.
“I know what I’m doing when I get the hell out of here.” He began, though the rest of the story seemed to continue somewhere far off in Frank’s mind.
“You’re an English major, Frank. There’s only about 2 things you can do with that degree.” Gerard teased, letting out a giggle when Frank shoved his shoulder in response.
“Well, not entirely. At least, not what you might be thinking.”
Gerard raised an eyebrow at this, unsure what he meant. “Hm?”
“Hold on,” Frank grinned, and shot up to his feet. He left the room without another word, and came back just over a minute later. Gerard was a bit shocked to see he’d come back holding a guitar and an amp.
“If that’s what you wanna do with your life, why are you here getting a fucking English degree of all things.”
“My parents wanted me to go to college. Plus I wanted to study literature regardless of whether it fit my career path or not.” Gerard made a humming noise in response, but Frank didn’t speak any further. Instead, he plugged in the amp to an outlet nearby, and sat in Gerard’s desk chair. Guitar in hand, he plucked at the strings and tuned it for good measure. Gerard could do nothing but watch in awe. Music had always been a part of his life, but never like this. He used to sing for about a year or so in high school, before he finally got tired of the endless bullying and let it go.
Frank began playing something Gerard couldn’t recognize, but it was soft and sweet, while eerie and melancholy at the same time. It felt like longing for something you’d once lost, or watching someone slowly slip away before your eyes. Gerard was blown away by how much it affected him; how deeply he felt the emotions that the song was trying to portray. He felt like he’d been transported to a different dimension, like something out of a drama or a horror movie. Gerard watched in awe as Frank plucked lightly and ever so delicately at the strings. The only thing going through his head was how beautiful the song was, and how equally beautiful the boy playing it was.
Frank gave his guitar a single strum at what Gerard had guessed was the end of the song. It tugged at a place in his heart he didn’t know existed, haunted and ethereal; Gerard had never heard anything that made him feel like this, and something within him wanted to hear more. Any more of this and Gerard would start to find any way to have Frank play for him every second of the day.
He wasn’t aware of how deeply it affected him, until Frank asked him, barely above a whisper—as though Gerard would dissipate in the air if he spoke too loud or abruptly—why he was crying. Frank set his guitar down, kneeling next to Gerard, and lifted his hand up to just under his eyes. Gerard’s skin was cold under Frank’s fingers, but when he wiped a tear from the bottom of Gerard’s cheek, the older boy’s skin lit up with electricity. Frank’s thumb was a flint and Gerard’s skin was a stone; that single swipe, gentle like a sweet spring breeze, lit a fire within both of their bodies.
Gerard leaned into Frank’s hand, like he was melting into the touch. Frank’s fingertips were rough and calloused—Gerard would expect nothing less of a guitar player—but his hands were softer than anything he’d ever felt. Frank’s palms were made of silk and Gerard almost couldn’t get enough of it. Almost. Frank made a noise from within his throat, snapping Gerard out of his thoughts almost immediately.
“Um, shit, sorry. I just,” He stammered, not knowing how to apologize without making the situation 10 times more awkward.
“No, no it’s fine. Really.” Frank replied, voice shaking as he spoke. Gerard stared down at his feet, worrying his lip and picking at the hem of his t-shirt.
They sat on the floor for some time, unable to move or say anything, before a bang on the door caught them both by surprise.
“Who the fuck is pounding your door like that this late at night?” Frank asked, getting to his feet and following a groaning Gerard to the front door.
“The only person with enough audacity to try and enter without permission if he had a key.” Gerard replied, not stopping to look at Frank when he did.
The door flung open as soon as the lock clicked open, and Mikey burst through the doorway. “My sweet beloved brother! Why haven’t you responded to my texts?” Mikey shouted, loud enough to wake up the whole dorm.
“Mikes. Volume.” Gerard said flatly, covering his ears.
“Well, Gee, if you’d answer your phone maybe I wouldn’t have to burst in here hoping you aren’t dead!” Mikey flung his hands around in the air as he normally did when he was being overly dramatic. Thank God Ray was there to reign him in, though.
“Mikey, it’s Gerard. If we didn’t remind him to charge his cell, he might as well not have one.”
“Ray,” Mikey started, turning to face the taller boy, “Are you ever gonna have my back when it comes to our familial issues?”
“I’ll think about it.”
Gerard rolled his eyes at this. There they go again. Gerard still wondered to this day how Mikey managed to settle down for once and stay with someone for longer than 2 or 3 months. They’d been dating for about 6 months, which wasn’t a lot, unless you were Mikey, of course.
“Thanks, Ray. Always appreciate your support.” Mikey shot back with a glare.
“Of course. As much as your bickering is hilarious to me, hearing Mikey yell like that isn’t exactly what I would wanna go deaf from.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Mikey asked, thoroughly confused.
“It means I would only wanna go deaf from hearing—” Gerard couldn’t hear the rest because Ray said it into Mikey’s ear for only the 2 of them to hear. Based on how red Mikey’s face went immediately afterwards, he didn’t wanna know.
“You guys seem pretty close, huh?” Frank said, leaning up against the wall to join in the conversation.
“Oh! This must be Frank.” Mikey turned to face him, then walked over to him to look him up and down with a stare that could kill if Frank wasn’t careful. When he was done his expression immediately shifted backwards, which sent Frank for a loop. “Well, I guess I got my answer to whether or not he’s cute.”
Frank’s face flushed a bit at this comment, unsure of what to say in response. “Um, thanks?”
“Hm,” Mikey began again, as though deep in thought. “Alright, I approve.”
“Approve of what exactly?” Frank and Gerard inquired at the same time. Ray stifled a giggle, watching the awkward glances they gave each other afterwards.
“I approve of you courting and possibly dating my brother. Maybe. It’s not a 100% approval just yet.” Mikey smirked as Frank’s whole face and the tips of his ears went red.
“Mikey, Jesus Christ dude. I don’t have enough fucking caffeine in my body for this shit.” Gerard groaned, walking away to grab a diet Coke from the fridge.
“Alright, alright. I'll let it go for now.” Mikey held up his hands in defeat before plopping down on the couch, nestling his head in Ray’s lap in front of the TV. “So what’s on the list for tonight?”
“Are you under the impression that I want you to stay?” Gerard’s tone was icy, but Mikey was just as cold, if not worse.
“Of course you do. I brought weed and a copy of Scream just in case. Gotta start off October right, yeah?”
“I’ll bite. You had me at weed and Scream.” Frank said, picking up Mikey’s feet from the couch, replacing them on top of his lap when he sat down.
“See? Frank gets it.” Mikey gave Gerard his famous puppy dog eyes. He was far too tired mentally and physically to fight over something this simple, though.
“Ugh, fine. Whatever I have to do to get you to shut up.” He groaned and stuffed a bag of popcorn in the microwave. “Please open a window or something before you light up in here.” Gerard called out.
“Yeah, yeah I know mom.” Mikey yelled back.
“You’re not even the one rolling, so hush.” Ray teased, which earned him a playful shove from Mikey in response.
“I’m just glad you guys have someone who can roll properly. I’m totally shit at it. I’ve tried a few times and I just couldn’t get it down.” Frank said, watching intently as Ray rolled 2 perfect blunts in a matter of minutes.
“Well, I guess we know who is and isn’t good with their fingers out of the two of them.” Mikey whispered to Ray. This earned him a smack on the back of the head from Gerard, who managed to hear it, walking by with the bowl of popcorn for the 4 of them.
Gerard placed the movie in the DVD player, and started it up, nestling in front of the 3 of them, his back up to the couch.
Ray was the first to take a hit—”The person who rolls should always get the first hit,” according to Gerard—next was Mikey, of course. Then Gerard, who let out a small cough after his exhale, then Frank, who held in his smoke longer than all 3 of them. They all stared at him as he exhaled, earning a small, and slightly uncomfortable laugh from him.
“Why are you all staring at me?” He asked, handing the blunt back to Ray.
“I’ve never seen anyone hold their smoke for that long.” Mikey said, flatly.
“I have strong lungs. It’s my only redeeming quality.”
“I sincerely doubt that.” Gerard replied, voice barely above a whisper. Mikey and Ray didn’t seem to notice, but Frank’s ears went pink at the compliment.
This was certainly going to be a fun few weeks.