Chapter Text
Frank was moving into a new apartment. It was his mom’s way of saying ‘congratulations on getting a scholarship, sorry your uncle died, then your grandfather on your father’s side, all within a month, please have the uncle’s shitty old house’. Frank hadn’t been particularly close to his uncle, but he’d been close to his grandfather. He’d stayed with his dad for a few days after the news, much to the dismay of his still-grieving mother, and so a grieving Frank ended up having to go between his parents houses every day.
All things considered, his parents had been civil to each other upon hearing the news of each other’s family deaths, which Frank was grateful for because he couldn’t handle fighting on top of his- and his mom’s near-constant crying.
Frank’s mom said that this was a ‘change for the better, assuring Frank that this was ‘for his own good, and ‘no I don’t just want you to leave’. It was downtown, closer to his university, but still only about 25 minutes from his parents by train. It was in this building that was surprisingly classy, just below doorman status, and much too good for some ragged 18 year old music student.
The second floor apartment itself was okay, Frank had to go out and get basics like a bed and a router and all the shit that his dead uncle didn’t feel the need to keep apparently, and get ready for school, but for now he enjoyed the fact that he could eat minute ramen on his dead uncles counter, in the dark, surrounded by boxes that he should’ve been unpacking.
Which he did, in his boxers, because fuck it, Frank Iero was an adult now, and he made his own goddamn decisions.
After the novelty of a new apartment wore off, which took about 3 minute ramens and a half hour, he mulled on the reality of his situation: he was alone, starting college in three fucking weeks, almost broke, and he was a fucking adult. He was supposed to have his shit together and he fucking didn’t. Frank needed a fucking smoke and he didn’t remember wether this stupid dead uncle building allowed that. He decided to risk whatever the punishment would be, cause he wasn’t exactly in the best mind space to give a singular fuck.
He rooted through his various black jeans, reminding himself to buy some blue jeans once in a while, until he felt a lump in the back pocket of the jeans that were worn in the knees and inner thighs. He fished out his lighter, pulling out is fresh pack from a different pair of black jeans, absentmindedly pulling on yet a different pair and some old shirt, and looking around what he deemed to be the living room for a window to lean out of so that if there was some stupid fucking no smoking rule, he maybe wouldn't get caught.
He found two windows too high up for him in the kitchen, but there were suitable windows in the bedroom (he didn’t want to call it his bedroom yet) facing onto the street. He opened up the window, lighting his cigarette and thinking about how horrendously fucked he was.
Frank got like this sometimes. Out of nowhere, the depression would sneak up on him and consume him. He didn’t mind it as much, he’d learned to come to terms with the fact that it was something that would always live with him, like a parasite attached to his back that sometimes fed on him in great increments, and sometimes drained him quietly, but never really left. He thought about his as he smoked his cigarette down all too quickly, blowing as much smoke as he could out the window, which went from his waist to a few inches above his head. The wind, however, decided to work against him, blowing the smoke lazily back into his nose and his apartment. Frank leaned on the windowpane, deciding to try and take his mind off of how fucked he was for the future by paying attention to the night life outside. He was in a sort of small shopping district outside of the city’s chinatown and it usually provided a fair amount of entertainment. Tonight was no different. A couple of teenagers-Frank put the older one at 24 at the oldest- were being kicked out of a grimy coffee shop directly across the street from Frank’s window.
“Get the fuck out man, don’t come back!” A curly haired guy was shooing out he two teenagers with a smile on his face. The older, raven haired guy smiled at the younger one and wrapped his arms around him before he shouted
“Whatever man, fuck you!” At the top of his lungs over his shoulder at the curly haired guy, who shook his head before he said
“Up yours, Way” and walked back into the coffee shop.
The dark haired one and the light haired one with glasses laughed and ran across the street and just like that the drama was over, leaving Frank with a finished cigarette and a longing to have a friendship like the one that the light haired, the dark haired, and possibly the curly haired guy, shared.
And, deep down, knowing that there was a high chance he’d never truly experience anything close to a friendship like that.
Frank finished his cigarette, extinguishing it on the windowsill, just as melancholy as before, looking around for a light switch and for something that could work as an ashtray.
He found a switch for a light in the kitchen which wasn’t half as bright as he’d hoped or needed, but he found a good lighting track in the living room and a lamp in the bedroom. As Frank sat down to open up his laptop, he heard voices coming down the corridor towards his room.
“I swear to god, Mikey, one day he’s gonna get tired of kicking us out” Frank heard as the voices approached his door
“Yeah, I bet he will. Oh shit, didn’t the dude in this apartment, like, die?” Frank cracked a smile at the too-loud voices that were right outside his door discussing wether or not his uncle was dead or wether he’d actually been caught smuggling drugs and Guatemalan cocaine and had had to flee the country. Frank and his dark humour honestly couldn’t help what he did next, getting off the couch and walking over to the door as quietly as possible before opening it to face the two guys outside and proclaiming as nonchalantly as possible,
“No, he actually died a couple weeks ago. No Guatemalan cocaine.” Frank looked at the two red faced teenagers only to see that they were the light haired one and the dark haired one from the coffee shop across the street. They both looked a little bit shocked and extremely embarrassed, the older one staring at Frank with his mouth open as the younger one (the light haired one) quickly opened his mouth to say
“Uhm, shit, we’re, uh, we’re really sorry? Fuck dude that sucks.”
The dark haired one seemed to compose himself and looked less shell shocked as he said
“So, are you living here now? I mean no offence if you were close or anything, but the guy who lived here was kind of a huge dick”
The light haired one elbowed the dark haired one in the side, but Frank smiled at the memories of what a crotchety old bastard his uncle had been.
“Nah, dude, it’s fine. He was my uncle, and he was an ass. But at least I get his apartment I guess.” The dark haired one smiled down at Frank, and he had really nice eyes. Eyes that always looked like they knew your darkest secret. He extended his hand.
“I’m Gerard, this is my brother Mikey. We all live in the apartment next to yours at the end of the hall. I hope you don’t mind rock music?” He asked hopefully. Frank beamed.
“No, it’s fine, I, uh, love rock music. What do you mean we all?”
Gerard rolled his eyes at his oversight.
“Yeah, sorry, um, we live with our friend Ray. He works at the coffee shop across he street, he’s got this big curly head of hair, if you see him you won’t miss him. If you see him and we’re not there tell him that you’re our neighbour and that he won the bet.” Mikey groaned.
“He doesn’t have to know he won the bet! We can just not tell him, right?” He said, turning to his brother, scared at the prospect of losing 5 bucks he desperately needed for something or other. Gerard laughed.
“We’ll tell him eventually. So, what’s your name?” He directed the last sentence at Frank, who realized he’d overlooked introducing himself in favour of his defence of rock and looking into the dark haired one-Gerard’s really nice eyes.
“I’m Frank. Frank Iero, the previous owner was my mom’s brother.”
Mikey looked like he was still terrified about losing his 5 bucks but he looked at Gerard briefly.
“Do you want to hang out at our place? I mean you don’t have to, but you know, we can talk, and hang out, we have spaghetti”
He awkwardly asked Frank after an almost imperceptible nod passed between him and Gerard. Frank started to weigh his options, he had to consider school preparations and unpacking and all he other shit, but halfway through his rational decision he thought, ‘fuck it. fuck everything I’m supposed to do’ and made a decision that his mother would cal out of character.
“Sure, yeah, that sounds awesome. Spaghetti sounds great.”
Two hours later, Frank was being destroyed at Mario Kart by Mikey and Ray (as it turned out Ray kicked them out of the coffee shop where he worked on a daily basis), drinking capri sun, and being told the rules for d&d because Gerard (Frank classified him as The Pretty One) turned out to be a huge fucking nerd and wanted Frank to be able to play because, as he said,
“Ray doesn’t play and you can’t play with just me and Mikey and it’d be SO cool to be able to play with you whenever, you know?”
Frank had no clue what Gerard was talking about but he was grinning and enthusiastically talking about the various rules and Frank’s bisexual ass couldn’t deny that Gerard’s smile was really beautiful. Frank cringed at his internal word choice, because he hadn’t described anything as beautiful since he’d listened to Frances Farmer will have her revenge on seattle for he first time. Gerard was explaining something about a dungeon master (Frank desperately hope it was part of he game and not weird sex stuff, but he wasn’t really listening) when Mikey threw down his controller in frustration.
“Goddamit Ray, what’s your secret? Are you secretly the king of rainbow road?”
Ray, who seemed to be the calmest and wisest of the three, smiled and leaned back onto the couch.
“What can I say man. It’s all about the concentration. Also, when I was in the womb I had the choice to choose between infinite knowledge of the universe or kicking ass at mario kart, and I chose the latter.”
Frank smiled, and then realized that he was really goddamn hungry and had been promised food.
“Hey, guys? I’m really sorry, but, um, I was promised spaghetti? I’ve only eaten ramen all day I’m kinda starving? I’m sorry!”
Ray looked at Mikey and Gerard, scandalized.
“You didn’t feed him? You two are so fucking rude. We’ll eat with you cause god knows they don’t eat properly.”
Frank was eternally grateful for Ray’s existence, and thanked him profusely as Ray microwaved the spaghetti and the sauce.
Frank and the boys got their gigantic plates of spaghetti and sat around a small, but adequate, table off to one side of their kitchen. Nobody could talk while eating, so Frank took in the apartment.
It was much more well furnished than his, if a little smaller. The kitchen was relatively large, with a stove and fridge and counter on one side, and the table and chairs on the other side. The kitchen opened into the living area, which had their couch and tv and various video game consoles, and well as a bookshelf which almost reached the ceiling, brimming with books that couldn’t quite fit the bookshelf the way they were supposed to, stacked on top of other books on the shelf. There was only one bedroom, the door was on the left side of the living room, and Frank could honestly say he had no idea who slept in that room or where the other two slept. Maybe they had bunk beds or something. The door on the right side of the living room was a bathroom.
Gerard and Mikey finished their food at the same time, pushing their plates away simultaneously.
“So Frank” Gerard started, his eyes glinting,
“What’s your story? Who are you? What are your interests? What makes you tick? What kind of music do you like? What led you to this exact moment in your life?”
“Which one of those do you want me to answer first?”
“Fuck Man, I don’t know. Tell me your story.”
Frank sighed.
“Shit, I don’t know. I was born on halloween?”
“That’s pretty dope” Mikey stated, smiling at Frank.
“Thanks man. Um, I don’t know? I’m not exactly a happy person. My uncle and grandfather just died. I’m staring university in a couple weeks, I’m majoring in music, music education. I don’t know, I’m not really used to having friends. If we’re friends, I mean. Shit, please don’t be offended, I have no idea what constitutes friends.” Frank had never wanted to sink into a hole deep, deep underground than he had at this moment.
And then Ray started laughing, which started Mikey laughing. After a couple of stunned seconds Gerard went into giggles too and Gerard’s face, the way his eyes crinkled and his teeth showed, sent Frank into laughing at himself too.
“Frank, man, I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you, it’s just that when I first met Gerard he was like this too, he was so fucking awkward and reserved and when we first met he didn’t talk to me for like twenty minutes before he blurted out something fucking nerdy, and he had no idea how to communicate his feelings and it was fucking adorable, especially considering the fact that now we live together. Mikey was always way better at people. But still not the best, no offence Mikey.”
Gerard was now laughing even harder as Frank stared a him, trying to imagine him being quiet and reserved, and not being able to picture it at all.
Mikey was looking at Gerard intently.
“I think I remember that night… I forget where you met, but Gerard came home talking about this dude with curly hair and how he wanted to be your friend but he thought he blew it. I was so surprised when you first came over, I thought you’d never be seen again.”
Frank was grateful that he wasn’t the subject of discussion anymore, and he had a feeling that each guy individually knew the struggle of being completely shitty at social interaction.
“Do you guys want to watch some anime?” Mikey broke the silence. Frank was surprised at the proclamation in context, but he honestly couldn’t say that the fact that these weird, accepting friends liked anime surprised him.
Three episodes of the girliest fucking anime ever, Ouran High school something or other, Ray turned in, hugging Gerard and Mikey, and politely saying goodnight to Frank, quickly hugging him before disappearing into the bedroom. Frank had no idea wether this was his queue to leave or not, and instead of saying nothing like usually did, he decided to ask wether he should leave or not, because it seemed like Mikey and Gerard understood anxiety at least somewhat.
“I don’t want to be rude- is this my queue to leave?”
Mikey shrugged.
“I’m probably going to sleep soon, but I wouldn’t mind if you stayed, and I doubt Gerard would either.”
Gerard nodded, a smile threatening to show itself on his lips.
“You can definitely stay longer, my sleep schedule’s permanently fucked and there’s plenty of food to go around, if you want to stay. You don’t have to though, no pressure if you want to get a healthy, human amount of sleep.”
He explained, his smile betraying him as he ducked his head. Frank considered it all. He could go back to his dead uncle’s dusty, empty, dark, cigarette smelling apartment, or he could stay in his new friends apartment. He silently decided that tonight, he'd enjoy himself.
"I can definitely stay a while longer."