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Disclaimer to anyone reading! This contains: Autistic and neurodivergent traits , gay themes , Unhealthy coping mechanisms, self doubt, and a whole bunch of other heavy themes. You've been warned.
I love you more…
Frank frankly was an interesting fellow. They spent their days in the forest and the fields, searching for any type of insect. He had particularly always enjoyed butterflies. Learning about them, looking at them, anything. They loved butterflies.
But he also loved Eddie. Eddie Dear. It had been around 6 months since the beautiful wedding between himself and Eddie, and he couldn't be happier. Frank never took off their wedding ring, and had a habit of feeling it to calm himself down.
Eddie was so in love with Frank, he would think about him almost all the time. Things Eddie could do for Frank, what Frank would like to do later, questions like that were very frequently on the mind of the Mailman. Today was no different.
Frank was currently standing in the park, in the town square. He had a butterfly net in one arm, and a book in the other as he looked for any insect that happened to pique his interest. Frank had a fascination with butterflies, but he loved any insect or arachnid. He was searching, until his eyes landed on something moving among the blades of grass. It was a praying mantis! And it was quite the beautiful specimen.
Frank got down onto their knees and started looking closer at the insect. He had the biggest smile on their face as they watched the mantis walk around. He was utterly fascinated with the small creature.
Eddie was calmly walking around, delivering the mail and talking with all of his friends as he went from place to place. He was walking by the park on his way home, and he spotted his husband. Eddie, not expecting the sudden surprise, started walking in Frank's direction.
“Hey Frankie! Why are you sitting on the grou-'' Eddie stopped in his tracks when he heard a horrible crunch underneath his feet. All of the color drained from his face as Eddie realized what he just did. This was not the first time Eddie had killed a bug Frank likes, and it most certainly will not be the last. Regardless, A look of Guilt crossed his face.
It took Frank a moment to understand what had just happened. A bug he was currently fascinated with, was killed by his husband. Even if it was an accident, Frank could feel anger boiling inside of him. He blinked a few times, and got up onto his feet before he could even comprehend what he was doing.
“You…killed it..” Frank said, his brain currently moving away from any logic as emotion stepped in its place.
“I'm really sorry, Frank. I didn't mean t-” Eddie tried to apologize for his actions, but Frank cut him off before he could even get the words out.
“You KILLED IT! How COULD YOU!” Frank yelled, getting quite angry and worked up. “You seriously need to pay more attention to the world around you sometimes! It's Ridiculous!” Frank knew damm well he should not be speaking to his husband in such a way, but he was just upset. Frank's hands started angrily shaking, he was stimming in anger.
“Frank-“ Eddie tried to speak again, but Frank wasn’t having it at all. Guilt was starting to eat Eddie alive.
“ No!” Frank stomped his foot angrily. He felt tears start to drip out of his eyes. “ I can’t deal with this right now!” He said, angrily walking off. His breathing was heavy hand his hands continued to shake around as he made his way home.
“ Okay…I love you…” Eddie said softly, taking off his hat and starting to rub his thumbs over the back Fabric of it.
Frank either didn’t hear him, or chose not to say it back. the idea of the Latter caused Eddie to go from feeling bad, to all out panic.
Eddie felt horrible, and he felt tears start to prick at his eyes. He hated making Frank upset, And Eddie didn’t know how to fix it. So, he scooped up the squished insect into his big hands and started to walk over to a patch of flowers. He laid the dead bug down at the bottom of one of the flowers. “ rest easy, little guy..” Eddie said softly. He then felt himself start to spiral down. He felt anxiety eating him alive, and he knew he had to do something to fix this.
“ I will fix this!” Eddie said defiantly.
Frank walked into his house and felt more tears start to prick at his eyes. He grit his teeth and started to shake his hands more. He put his face into his hands as tears fell. It was a solid 20 minutes until his meltdown was at its tail-end. Frank looked puffy-eyed and exhausted, but hey. At least the worst part is over. Frank collapsed into the bed and fell asleep almost instantly. A meltdown like that was physically exhausting.
It was quite a few hours later when Frank woke up to the sound of the home telephone ringing. He got up out of bed and went over to the phone. He picked it up and put it to his ear.
“ hello?” Frank asked, his voice still laced with sleep.
“ Heya Frank!” Julie’s energetic voice asked. Frank could practically hear her smile through the phone. “ I was just wondering what you and Eddie made for dinner? I made too much mac-and-cheese and wanted to know if you two wanted any!”
Frank blinked a few times. “ Dinner? Julie, I just woke up from a nap. What time is it?” Frank asked, looking around. Eddie wasn’t home yet! If Julie had already made dinner, it was well past the time Eddie was normally home! Eddie has a bed at the post office, but he almost never sleeps there anymore! Not since the wedding…
Frank felt worry start to bubble up inside of himself as Julie cheerfully said
“ 6:37! Why?”
Frank’s heart dropped down into the floor. “ Eddie isn’t home yet…Is Eddie with you?” He asked, worry clear in his voice.
“No? Is everything okay?” Julie asked, also beginning to sound quite worried for her friends.
“ I- I said some pretty mean things to Eddie earlier because I was upset- I’m worried he might still be out there! O-or maybe he’s sleeping at the post office! Julie, what if Eddie thinks I don’t love him anymore…” Frank started to sound quite emotional, and very worried.
Julie was silent on the other end of the telephone before saying; “ I’ll be over in 5 minutes.” And hanging up the phone.
Just like she said, Julie was over quite quickly. She came back to a very anxious looking Frank. He was pacing back and forth, thinking about all the possibilities.
“Frank?” Julie said, closing the door behind herself as she walked in. Frank’s head turned to look at her. “ Julie! I’m so worried about him! Eddie is never late coming home! I never should have yelled at him earlier!” Frank said, bringing up his hands and hitting himself in the head with the palm of his hand.
Julie rushed over. “ woah, woah. No need for that.” She said softly, gently bringing Frank’s hands away from his head. “What happened earlier?” Julie asked.
Frank recalled in detail exactly what had happened, and why he was so worried about Eddie.
“Oookay.” Julie said, the gears turning in her head as she tried to figure out what she could possibly do to help.
Meanwhile frank was falling down a rabbit hole of panic.
“ I knew better than to talk to him like that! Eddie is so sensitive, all it takes is a slight tone difference and he is questioning if I still care about him! And now I don’t know where he is! What if he fell again and got hurt?!” Franks breathing was getting quicker and quicker.
Julie but her hands on Frank’s shoulders. “ Frank, you need to calm down! I care about Eddie too, but it won’t help anyone if you get all worked up! We will find him, don’t worry!”
And that’s exactly what they did. After Julie successfully calmed Frank down from the brink of another meltdown, He was getting ready to go out and look for Eddie. Frank knew the sun was setting corse to set within the next few hours, so they needed to act fast! Julie agreed to stay home incase Eddie came back while Frank was out.
Frank went out and started looking for his beloved husband. The first place he checked was the post office. He opened the door and looked in every single room, and saw no signs of his Eddie. Then he went to Howdy’s place, and started looking around there. Frank checked everywhere! Every place he could thing of, Frank checked and saw no signs of his husband. All throughout, their guilt was eating him alive. Frank started to fiddle with his Wedding ring…something he only did when he was nervous. Where could Frank possibly be?!
Frank started to become desperate in his search, he started to ask the neighbors. The first place he went to was Wally’s house. Out of anyone, Wally might have an idea.
Frank struck out again and again, asking everyone in town if they had seen his beloved Eddie. The sun was begging to set at this point, and Frank’s fears were only growing.
“ I should of never spoken to him like that..” Frank kept muttering to himself as he began to do his walk of shame back to his empty house. The tears were flowing freely down his face at this point. If Eddie was really trying that hard not to be found…Frank was going to leave him alone. He felt terribly guilty about this entire situation, it was eating him alive.
That was, until Frank spotted out of the corner of his eye, a white shirt, below an orange neck, and a blue hat.
“ Eddie?” Frank said softly, his head Turing a full 180% to look behind himself to check if it was his eyes playing tricks on him. It wasn’t! Frank finally saw his beloved!
But something wasn’t right…Eddie was on his hands and knees poking around in a patch of flowers. Was he…looking for something? As Frank started to walk closer, he started hearing something. Was Eddie speaking to himself?
“ gotta fix it…make frank feel better…gotta find one..” Eddie kept mumbling to himself over and over. Almost like he was in a trance, or hypnotized!
Frank’s feet started moving faster without frank telling them to. He ran up to Eddie and brought him up onto his own to feet. “ Eddie! I was so worried!” Frank said, practically throwing himself into Eddie’s arms.
“..you were? B-but I thought you would never want to see me again because of what happened..” Eddie said, his brain still recovering. Frank gasped.
“Nonsense! Eddie, I love you more than all the insects in the entire world!! There are hundreds of insects out there, and there is only one you!” Frank said, scooping Eddie’s face into his hands.
“ B-but-“ Eddie tried to add, but Frank leaned in and kissed him. All of the things Eddie was going to say vanished into thin air.
“ I am so sorry, my dear, I shouldn’t of ever spoken to you in such a negative way… you are so smart, and kind, and considerate. And yes, you may be a little clumsy, but you have a big heart and that is all that matters to me. I love you more.” Frank said after pulling away from the kiss.
Eddie’s brain had melted into mush, so he simply nodded and let Frank take him home. Even though they were married, every kiss seemed to make Eddie melt.
Frank and Eddie soon separated from the kiss, and Eddie felt something crawling over his hand. He shivered and brought his hand up for inspection. A spider had crawled up onto his hand. Part of eddie wanted to freak out, but he tried to keep his hand still.
Frank gasped. “Eddie! You have a jumping spider on your hand!” They said happily, Frank's hands starting to flap up and down.
Eddie loved seeing Frank stim, so he smiled. “Y-yeah!”
“Thats adorable!!” Frank said, a smile spreading across his face.
Eddie nodded. “The spider is pretty cute!”
Frank giggled. “ Yeah, the spider is cute too! But i was talking about you, Eddie.”
Eddie felt blush spread across his entire face when Frank said that.
I guess everything did work out.