Ryan Ross was used to waking up in his room at home and rolling over in bed to turn his alarm clock off at least seven times before actually getting out of bed, because it was pretty hard for him to get into trouble for being late, or well, anything now that he was dating Mr Urie. He'd eventually get out of bed and have a shower, put some clothes on and sit and smoke some weed whilst jamming out to music he found on 8tracks by searching the 'stoner', 'gay, and 'emo' tags.

If he was feeling particularly adventurous that morning, he'd end up looking at Megan's social media and laughing at the kind of shit she posted there, but at least Ryan hadn't unfriended her like sixty people had after she'd posted seventy different pictures of Michael Clifford in a row two weeks ago. Ryan was a true friend.

However, what Ryan Ross really wasn't accustomed to waking up to was Megan Clifford, herself, in person, and upon that day, their second day of being in France, he was rather rudely awoken to the sound of Megan running around their hotel room whilst 5SOS played rather loudly in the background.

"What the fuck?" Was really all Ryan could say as he rolled over in bed and attempted to melt away under the sheets.

"This is part of my morning routine, don't routineshame me, Ryan." Megan stopped running about and turned down the volume of the music, which was something that Ryan was beyond thankful for. "Every morning, I wake up and do my exercise routine, I call it 5 Seconds Of Exercise, not because you do it for five seconds, but because I always listen to 5SOS when doing it, and I do each exercise for that song, like, for example, my current routine is lunges to She Looks So Perfect, and then squats to Don't Stop, and then sit ups for Good Girls, and then I jog on the spot for Kiss Me Kiss Me, and then I do starjumps for 18, and then a handstand for Everything I Didn't Say, and then I sit down and have a cry for Beside You, and then I start again with lunges to End Up Here, because I don't really know anymore exercises. You should try it with me, Ryan."

It took Ryan a moment to remember that this was Megan Clifford and that, therefore, this was all one hundred percent serious and not some kind of weird joke that he was far too asleep to comprehend.

"What time is it, Megan?" Ryan avoided her attempt to make him exercise, because as much as he was horrible for making her believe that her ex-boyfriend was genuinely the Zodiac Killer, and he did kind of feel sorry for her, but he didn't feel sorry enough to jump out of bed and start squatting to Don't Stop by 5 Seconds Of Summer.

"It's currently seven minutes past five... in the morning." She hit him with a smile, "that's why I'm so tired, but then it's okay, I don't need sleep all I need is pictures of Michael Clifford where you can see the outline of his dick through his jeans."

"Megan, you need to get laid." Ryan shook his head in disbelief, "wait, what the fuck are you- why is it five in the morning, why the fuck did you wake up at five in the fucking morning to do exercise?"

"I didn't wake up at five, god, Ryan, don't be so ridiculous, it's like you don't know me at all. I woke up at five seconds past five minutes past five in the morning. Because it's five seconds of summer. Five Five Five." She then proceeded to turn the music up slightly and squat as Ryan attempted to comprehend any kind of reply.

"Honestly I'd prefer it if you woke up at six seconds past six minutes past six every morning and drew a pentagram on the floor in your own blood and attempted to summon Satan into our hotel room." Ryan took a moment to envision the act of doing so and tucked it away as an idea for stupid shit to do later. Not tomorrow, because tomorrow, Ryan was waking up at four twenty in the morning and playing Smoke Weed Everyday and getting stoned as fuck.

"Why would I want to summon Muddy? I'm happy to be away from her, god, Ryan, do you know how good it is to know that there's a whole entire ocean between us, like if she tried to come after me for being too cool for her, she'd fucking drown." Megan stopped squatting and pressed pause on her music. "Is the squatting distracting?"

"Megan, please..." Ryan rolled over in bed, "could you not squat silently? The squatting is fine, it's the playing 5SOS really loudly at five in the morning that's a problem."

"But why would I squat without 5SOS, what is the point in squatting if Michael Clifford isn't there with me?" Megan began to look genuinely upset as she sat down on her bed. "What is the point in anything if Michael Clifford isn't there with me?"

"I'm here with you, you can squat for me, Megan." Ryan wasn't sure whether he was now crossing the line between friendly and supportive and weirdly sexual. "Or you could not squat. Those are all good possibilities."

Megan paused for a moment, grabbing her phone and scrolling through the Michael Clifford google image search page that she had set as her homepage. "Hmm... Ryan...?"

"Yeah," Ryan now sat up in bed, coming to accept that Megan just wasn't going to let him sleep, and that was just a thing that he was going to have to deal with.

"What rooms are Frank and Mr Way in?" She looked up at him, "I've asked in the Le Frerard group chat-"

"Le Frerard?" Ryan looked up at her in horror, before reaching down for his suitcase and for the weed he'd smuggled across the Atlantic Ocean in his ass, because he'd had dicks in his ass, what was a little weed in comparison?

"That's frerard in French." Megan explained, "because we're in France, you know, so we have to be culturally accurate, and anyway, I added you to it, but no one has any idea, apparently they ran off before everyone else got their rooms, it's almost like they're hiding from us."

Ryan let out a sigh, "I really do wonder why." He began to roll himself a joint as Megan typed a message back to the Frerard groupchat.

"You can't smoke in here - they have detectors, Ryan, do you want to have the whole hotel evacuated at five in the morning?" Megan stood up, horrified, and reaching to pull the weed away from Ryan.

"Yes." Ryan's face fell into a smirk. "Yes, I do-"

"Ryan, no." Megan pulled the weed away from him and threw it out of the window. "I will kick you out of the room, you can fuck off-"

"Megan, you woke me up at five in the morning because you were lunging to She Looks So Perfect, you can absolutely fuck off, I need to get stoned-"

"Go get stoned elsewhere then, you know, outside!" Megan suggested, gesturing vaguely with her hands as she spoke, "there isn't a no squatting rule in hotel rooms, you know?"

"Megan, I'll take the smoke alarm out, smoke a joint, and then we'll go and find Frank and Mr Way and you can take pictures of them sleeping or whatever you want to do." He shrugged and reached up to pull out the smoke alarm.

"Ryan, that's vandalism!" Megan looked horrified. "You're ruining property-"

"Yes, and Muddy is ruining the face she was born with everyday by the kind of makeup she puts on it, but I don't see you stealing all her make up, you know, don't be a hypocrite, Megan, oh my god."

Megan then proceeded to sit down and write a callout post for Michael Smith on facebook as Ryan began to smoke a joint. She made sure to tag him in it at least seven times because Megan Clifford wasn't a fake ass indirect hoe, if she was going to be a shady fucker, she was going to do it properly - she was really a true hero, as everyone can agree. She even tagged the facebook account he made for his dog in it, just to make sure.

-

Frank was the first to wake up, which was perhaps for the first time in months now, as it was always Gerard who tended to wake him up with coffee, or was already sat in the living room by the time he made his way downstairs, but right now, he was clearly jetlagged and a little stressed by everything, so Frank decided it was best to let him sleep.

He took a shower and got dressed before picking up his phone from the dresser where he'd left it last night, and was rather surprised to see that he had over a hundred text notifications, which was certainly something new as he had about four friends on good days. What was even more surprising was the fact that these messages had come from a group chat entitled 'Le Frerard', which already made him want to shove his head through the wall, but better still, it contained all the students on this trip, and he was left to assume that maybe he'd been added by mistake, and he'd proceed not to think about how someone might have gotten his personal phone number, but no, oh no, Megan Clifford had added him, just ten minutes ago, and there was no mistaking the intent behind that.

Frank knew what he should do, and that was just leave the group, and maybe block Megan if it came down to that, but what Frank did do was message the group, and in particular, Megan, back.

'Why did you add me to this? How the fuck do you even have my number?'

Megan replied within seconds, which was lovely, and his message was also seen by at least five other people, which was also... lovely. 'I'll answer your questions if you answer mine. What is the frerard truth?'

Megan then proceeded to change the group chat name to 'We Must Find The Frerard Truth', which was then followed by a heart emoji, and the gay couple emoji, and another heart emoji, and then what was supposed to be the French flag, but Megan had fucked up so it was actually the flag for the Netherlands, and then there was the eggplant emoji... just there, casually.

'Megan I'll get you deported back to America if you don't shut the fuck up.' Frank knew that he was a kind and responsible teacher that was always looking out for his students by his astute empathy that he displayed in all situations, just not today, because they weren't in school right now, so technically he wasn't that much of their teacher anymore... kind of? Something like that.

'Like you know how to do that, like you wanna fight me I will win!!!'

Frank regretted his entire existence, and glanced back at Gerard, wondering if perhaps he should have woken him up before he ended up 'fighting' Megan Clifford via text message.

'Like there isn't weed in your room.' Frank followed his message up with a plant emoji, that looked vaguely like weed. He wasn't sure why he did this at all, he just kind of felt like it.

'It's RYAN's !!!!!!!!!' Megan texted back instantly.

'The police don't know that.' Within seconds of Frank's response, he found that Megan had removed him from the group chat, and that, in his eyes, was indeed a victory, against a seventeen year old girl, who really needed to chill the fuck down about Michael Clifford.

As Frank put his phone down he took a second to acknowledge the fact that Megan had just confirmed the fact that Ryan had smuggled weed through American and French customs and across the Atlantic Ocean, and in all honesty, he decided that in this particular situation, it was perhaps best if he pretended this was something he just didn't know.

-

Gerard had vaguely planned out the things he wanted them to do during the trip, and had then given that list to Lindsey for her to sort out and actually organise because Gerard had to accept that he just kind of incompetent when it came to both of those things, which totally wasn't his fault as he had been totally preoccupied with very important things such as being stressed, and lying, mainly to himself about his feelings for Frank, and avoiding everyone else in his life for Frank, because Gerard was an excellent person who had zero flaws whatsoever.

Being in Paris, they, of course, had to get in that Eiffel Tower visit, and according to Lindsey, who'd planned this shit out, today was just the perfect day. Well, really, she hadn't put all that much thought into and had done it all in about forty minutes, but Gerard was living under the illusion that she'd spent something closer to forty hours, and that was quite honestly fine with her.

"It's really pretty here, isn't it?" Frank and Gerard were again at the back of the crowd of students that they... welll... Lindsey and Brian were attempting to walk through the streets of Paris. "I mean, they're doing that on purpose, it's like a tourist spot so like... but it is beautiful."

"Yeah." Gerard gave a nod, making sure that Megan Clifford was sufficiently far away before he continued to talk to Frank. "I mean, I wouldn't take you somewhere shit and boring, would I? Come on, I'm trustworthy."

"Yeah," Frank grinned at him, "you are... quite the expert... on beautiful things... and..." Frank froze, wondering if there was an alternate meaning to his words that Gerard might happen to interpret, and Gerard did, but he brushed it off on the basis that Frank could never possibly think about him in that way, or at least he was convinced as such.

"Yeah..." Gerard gave a nod, words sourced largely just for the sake of filling the silence. "Sorry I slept in, you know, I'm just tired and well, I'm good now, but it was... I talked to Mikey last night, it's alright, I think, he gave me some life advice on the basis of Instagram, which is... interesting."

"That sounds a bit Megan Clifford really." Frank couldn't help but comment, trying not to think just what Megan was putting in that Frerard groupchat now that she'd removed him from it.

"No, she gives you life advice on the basis of lyrics from 5SOS songs," Gerard met him with a sincere look, "trust me, I have been on the receiving end of it. Well, not life advice, but one day I vaguely asked the class if I should stop making offensive jokes about other teachers, and Megan's response was 'to quote, Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Ashton Irwin, and that other one-' that's not she said but I can't remember his name, 'Don't Stop, doing what you're doing' and then she started singing that fucking song and it was horrendous."

"Well, I mean who wants you to stop being offensive about shitty teachers?" Frank flashed him a smile, "pretty good life advice from where I'm standing."

"Yeah," Gerard gave a shrug, "Megan's not really that bad, she just needs to calm down about 5SOS not put the entirety of her trust in Ryan Ross, which is not a thing that anybody should do ever, looking at things honestly."

"Yeah..." Frank trailed off: mind fixating on the incident that morning. "Well... she does... well she has admitted to me that Ryan smuggled weed into the country-"

"For fuck's sake..." Gerard shook his head in disbelief, "wait, no, actually, that's a good sign, because this means that he didn't get caught, which means he has the life skills to work for a drug cartel in the future, which are about the only life skills he has, so you know what, let's congratulate him on them, and we can just hope that he doesn't get caught on the way back, because the moment that he does, he is absolutely not with us."

"You're so responsible." Frank rolled his eyes in disbelief.

"I'm one of Bertfield's finest teachers, of course."

"Let's be real, Gee, you haven't got much in the way of competition."

-

"Yeah, Megan, it's called the Eye-ful tower, because it's actually made out of goblin eyes." Ryan and Megan were sat at the top of the Eiffel Tower, regretting ever going on this trip due to how much effort getting to the top had required.

"Goblin eyes?" Megan regarded Ryan's comment with a vague sense of skepticism, before turning to watch some kid throw up in the corner because they were so high up; he had obviously never been high before, what a fucking loser, he obviously needed to embrace weed in his life.

"Yes." Ryan pulled on his serious lying to Megan voice as he looked away from the kid. "Goblin eyes, come on, get with it Megan, I'm not lying to you, don't be so ridiculous, why the absolute fuck would I lie to you? You're my best friend and we have this special bond of friendship and trust and all of those good things."

"Ryan, no offense, but I don't think goblins are real." Megan shook her head, "you must be mistaken, maybe it's goat eyes or something, because I mean, yeah, it's the Eyeful Tower, that just makes sense, but I think maybe you've got that goblin bit wrong. I mean, I've never seen a goblin, where do they live?"

"In hot countries, Megan, in like Ethiopia and shit, that's why your privileged white ass has never seen a goblin." Ryan shook his head at her in disbelief, "stop fucking culturally appropriating goblin culture, oh my god, Megan, I trusted you."

"Ryan, I'm sorry, I didn't know, please don't... I'm... not culturally appropriating goblins, I promise." Megan looked sincere and apologetic, as she should, of course.

"How dare you think goblins aren't real? Whatever next? You'll be saying that Jahmed, Jack and Ahmed Smith aren't real and in love-"

"Ryan, no, don't you dare. I would never!" Megan let out a sigh as she thought of Jahmed, the one true light of her life, after Michael Clifford, and being mean to Muddy in the comments of her Instagram photos, of course.

-

Gerard was surprised to found just how little effort he was actually putting into the trip, as Lindsey seemed to just be naturally taking charge, and most of the kids were so relieved that they weren't actually in school that they were just being mostly chill, well, besides Ryan Ross, who had to go and ruin it at least once an hour, but Gerard was getting by so far by letting someone else deal with it.

It had now come to the point where they'd made the mistake of letting the students wander around and go to shops and shit on their own for a while, as long as they were in groups of at least three and promised not to get murdered or something because that would be inconvenient for everyone involved really, so Frank and Gerard were left even more on their own, and Frank was floating dangerously close to the point of approaching the subject of last night in detail.

Because as much as he figured that it just wasn't his business, he did want to know, because he just did care about Gerard, and clearly it was more than him just being tired; there was something up, and perhaps it was Frank's duty as his best friend to ask about just what that could possibly be. And perhaps it wasn't, but perhaps Frank was just getting tired of occupying his mind with other things for the sake of wasting time - it was bothering him, and half the solution lay in simply admitting that to himself.

They'd gone and sat down on a bench somewhere less crowded, which was really hard to find considering they were in the capital city of a large country, but the point was that there were somewhat fewer people where they were sat now than there had been previously, and most of all, there was no one they knew in sight - especially not Megan Clifford.

Not that Frank had anything against Megan Clifford, except he kind of did. Frank did kind of have a few things against Megan Clifford, okay, but, that wasn't important.

"You look like something's bothering you." They had sat in silence for a while, leaving Gerard as the first one to break it, which was something that neither of them had particularly expected, as even Gerard himself hadn't been counting on the fact that he'd be uttering that question aloud.

Frank was a little stumped at first, pulling his mind back into the moment and taking in the concerned look in Gerard's eyes, and generally just how beautiful his eyes were - beautiful was kind of a recurring theme when it came to Gerard Way. Frank was pretty certain he could write an essay on it.

"You..." He began, leaning back and taking a moment before continuing, "no, you, look like something's bothering you, and then that's bothering me, so that's what's bothering me, but you're gonna have to tell me what's bothering you first to get me to stop being bothered." Frank found that his words came out entirely too fast, and he wasn't even sure that Gerard had understood half of what he'd said.

"Bothered doesn't really sound like a word anymore." Gerard's face gave way to a smile. "Bothered." He repeated it slower this time, pulling it gently off his tongue.

"Bothered." Frank mimicked, mocking the tone in which Gerard spoke slightly, and of course, light heartedly.

Gerard narrowed his eyes, shaking his head a little, doing all he could to pretend that he was even vaguely offended and not just overly fixated upon the way Frank's cheeks burned a subtle shade of pink when he smiled. "Bothered." His face eventually gave way to a smile. "What is it that you think's bothering me?"

"I wish I fucking knew." Frank exclaimed, laughing slightly, "that would make things easier, I mean, isn't this what you've always wanted, and okay, maybe you're just tired, but I don't think you're tired, because we live together and I've seen you up at four in the morning six nights in a row to finish work or whatever, and this isn't what tired looks like."

Gerard paused for a moment: the idea of Frank knowing exactly what his form of tired was and wasn't doing all sorts of things to his insides. "Do you really pay that much attention to me when I'm tired of all things?"

"You don't pay much attention to yourself when you're tired, so I mean, someone has to." Frank shrugged it off, "anyway, stop avoiding the question, what's going on?"

Gerard bit his lip, because there was really just this thing with, you know, the fact that the whole issue was related so directly to Frank himself, and if Gerard was quite honest with himself the whole idea of just admitting it like it was nothing kind of made him sick to his stomach.

"Some shit with Mikey." Was what he opted for in the end, and it was at least half way true. "I miss him. I miss him and Pete, you know that, I mean, and then. I guess there's some other shit, but I kind of feeling awkward talking about it, like that's why I needed to talk to Mikey, like he's my brother, you know? Not that I don't trust and value you loads, because of course I do, but-"

"I get what you mean." Frank stopped him with a smile. "I just don't want it upsetting you all the time we're here, you know? You're going to sort it out with Mikey or something, aren't you? Promise me."

Gerard smiled, albeit rather weakly, "yeah, course." Because the thing was that, that yeah, Frank was right, he really did have to sort his feelings out with him, but there was just something yelling at him from the inside that this was anything but the right time, and he found himself just far too inclined to listen to it.

"Good." Frank grinned at him, "now do you want to go walk around for a bit, I'll buy you the absolute worst and most cringey gift I can find in a gift shop, and that's a promise."

"Oh Jesus Christ." Gerard rolled his eyes, but got up regardless because maybe he really did want some random bracelet with the French flag on as long as it was Frank who gave it to him. Maybe. Or did he just need to chill? Maybe. But it was beyond that point now anyway.

"You're excited really, aren't you? I know you are."

"Fuck off. I'm not."

He so was.

-

By that evening, as much as Gerard had promised Frank, things just hadn't gotten any better, and it was perhaps something that Frank had suspected all along, and it had perhaps come to the point where he'd given up searching for answers in Gerard himself, and instead found himself gravitating towards Lindsey, who just seemed to radiate the fact that she knew exactly what was going on at all times.

Megan and Ryan had ended up breaking a table in their hotel room and Gerard had groaned before going up there with them to try and fix it before anyone noticed and they had to pay for it or something. Frank largely found the situation amusing but thought it best not to mention that aloud, and was just thankful that he wasn't the one who had to deal with it - it seemed that Lindsey shared this notion, as the two sat in a comfortable kind of knowing silence in dining area of the hotel.

Frank just thought that it was good that all the trouble Megan and Ryan had managed to cause was exclusive to their hotel room and that they hadn't accidentally caused mass panic in the streets of Paris, because that was really not something that Frank put past the two of them.

Really the only mass panic that Frank had been experiencing was directly related to Gerard and the issue of well... whatever the fuck the issue was, because from the way he frowned and looked away from Frank when he spoke to him, it only seemed to be getting worse as time went on.

A good seven minutes of thinking had passed before Frank finally broke the silence: coming to conclude that it didn't matter if it wasn't really his business, because he wanted to know, and he wanted to fucking help, for fuck's sake. He wasn't even sure that Lindsey would know anything more than he did, but there was just something in the way she held her gaze that give him more than just a slight suspicion.

"What is it?" He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for a moment and exhaling loudly, not exactly keen to address the issue directly, at least not yet: finding himself unnecessarily nervous in regard to the whole ordeal.

"What?" Lindsey looked up, pulling her gaze over his face and attempting to read the answer off of it. "What do you mean?"

Frank met her gaze, feeling somewhat uncomfortable under the intensity of it, but found it within himself to continue regardless. "About Gerard. He says that he's fine, but there is something up."

"Yeah..." Lindsey let out a sigh: knowing exactly what was up, and knowing exactly what should happen - that being that Gerard should just stop being so scared and talk about his feelings.

"So there is something?" Frank leaned forward, eyes widening rapidly.

"Yeah, I thought you'd already established that." She looked over him and considered just telling him for a moment, because she knew it would help everything along so much more, but then Gerard would probably never forgive her if Frank didn't leap into his arms instantly, and Lindsey was only eighty five percent confident that Frank wouldn't have to go an emotional journey before he was ready to admit that he did actually feel the same way about him.

"Yeah... I..." He trailed off, looking away, "do you know what it is? Because I know that you probably aren't allowed to tell me for whatever reason because I got the feeling that he really didn't want to do that, and I just... I'm kind of worried about him, because we usually talk to each other about things. Is it something bad?"

Lindsey leaned back in her chair, unsure as how to approach this properly, and how much information she could give Frank to get him to just calm the fuck down for a while, while still ensuring that that Gerard wouldn't hate her forever because she'd told Frank something she shouldn't have.

"It's not bad." She told him, "he's got himself all messed up in his own head and started thinking that it's a bad thing because he thinks that you won't like it and will hate him or whatever if he tells you, but honestly it's just... it's fine."

"I could never hate him." Frank found himself speaking before he could really think about the words that just left his lips. But the thing was that once he thought about them, he found that he'd actually agree.

Lindsey raised her eyebrows at that. "Never?" Frank nodded almost instantaneously. "I'm going to tell him that. He needs to tell you. It's ridiculous, and once you know it will make the both of you happier, and everyone else, thinking about it really."

"Yeah," Frank bit his lip, "I mean, I'm just so worried, you know? I really care about him. It's nothing to be worried about, you promise?"

"I promise." She placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'll get him to tell you, and it will be fine."

Frank pulled away from her hand as he caught sight of Gerard making his way into the room, followed closely behind by Megan and Ryan, who looked awfully smug for two people that had just broken a piece of furniture in a hotel room.

"Did you manage to fix it then?" Lindsey gestured for Gerard to come over, and Frank couldn't help but watch him closely as he sat down beside him.

"Well... the word fix can be used very loosely." Gerard leaned back in his chair, watching briefly to make sure that Ryan and Megan made their way over to the other kids and didn't fuck off elsewhere and break anything else. He then made a mental note never to have kids ever. Well, at least not kids like Megan and Ryan anyway.

Frank let out a snort in response. "What did you do?"

"Glued it back together. It's fine as long as you don't touch it." Gerard couldn't help but look excessively proud of himself throughout this all.

"Amazing." Lindsey rolled her eyes, before pulling her phone out and replying to a message from Chantal, who was inquiring as to how the Gerard and Frank situation was going, because Lindsey totally hadn't told her, no, not at all.

"You'll never guess how they broke it." Gerard continued, speaking more to Frank at this point, "because of course, I had to ask, I mean, with them you kind of shouldn't, because these are things that you just don't really want to know, but I got curious."

"How?" Frank inquired, glancing briefly across at Megan and Ryan and finding that they looked far too pleased with themselves, as usual.

"Well... they were doing handstands up against it... as a part of their 5SOS based exercise route, which I can't help but feel like was Megan's idea, but Ryan ended up looking oddly thrilled with it. Even asked me to join in and I was just like I'd rather not do a press up to She Looks So Perfect, thank you very much."

"Press ups to She Looks So Perfect..." Frank shook his head in disbelief, "wow. That's ridiculous."

"I know!" Gerard exclaimed, grinning, "which is of course, why you do lunges to She Looks So Perfect. Press ups are not a part of the routine, but sitting down and crying is."

"Did you memorise this shit?" Frank burst out into a fit of laughter. "You fucking weirdo."

"No!" Gerard exclaimed, suddenly very defensive. "They explained it to me about seven thousand times, it was hard not to take some of it in."

Frank only shook his head. "You fucking weirdo."

Just across the room, Megan Clifford was sat awkwardly in a chair so she could discreetly angle her iPhone at the two of them in order to film some footage for her Frerard shipping video.

The thing was, of course, that she was doing an absolutely abysmal job of being discreet, and it had gotten to the point where Lindsey had actually given her a little wave as the phone slipped to capture her as well. She was tempted to go over and stop it from happening, but in all honesty, she was pretty sure that if they could just see how in love with each other they looked then it might actually help them a great deal.

Not that Lindsey would ever go on the record as being a Frerard shipper, but she was the one who'd booked them a room together, and let's just say that it was no accident.

-

It wasn't until ten that night until Frank got any time alone with Gerard. The two had just made it into their room and Gerard had laid out across his bed: eyes fixated up at the ceiling, as Frank found himself lingering awkwardly just a few feet away.

It had been on his mind. In all honesty, it had been pretty much the only thing on his bed that day, and it came down to the point where he'd spent the past hour or so waiting for this moment, waiting for them to be alone together, but now that it was here, and now opportunity lay right before him, he felt rather frozen, vacant, and unwilling. Sick to his stomach, that kind of thing, because it was something he didn't want to address but something he knew he'd come down to, in the vast expanse of silence that lay between them.

Frank even wondered if Gerard could feel it too: the words that lay just on the tip of his tongue, the matters of consequence and reaction that lay just out of reach, but were gradually and inevitably approaching the both of them.

It was another two minutes until Frank opened his mouth to speak: getting out a rather shaky, "Are you-" Only for Gerard to cut him off.

"If you're going to ask me if I'm okay for the seven thousandth time, and what's going on, just don't fucking bother okay?" Gerard sat up, the harsh tone to his voice startling Frank, who really wasn't at all sure what to say in response. "I'm sorry." He let out a sigh, shaking his head and gesturing for Frank to sit down beside him. "Just don't want to talk about it... it's I don't know, getting worse."

Frank toyed with the idea of asking him exactly how it was getting worse for a good few moments, before coming to conclude that he was much more content in silence for the time being, and resorted to simply sitting down beside Gerard where he gestured for him to.

"It's not something I want to talk about." Gerard scratched at the back of his neck, "makes me feel like shit, honestly. I'm not quite sure what to do about it though, because maybe it just isn't going away. I thought maybe it would, I don't know, I never really was sure. I'm not good at this kind of shit, really."

Frank paused for a moment, replaying Lindsey's words over in his head, because she had sworn to him that it was nothing bad, and yet, here Gerard was, letting whatever it was destroy him from the inside out, and if he was honest, Frank just couldn't deal with it. "It's not bad though. It's not a bad though. Come on, it's not-"

"You what?" Gerard's eyes widened as he repeated Frank's words over in his head for the tenth time. "What do you mean, it's-"

"Lindsey said-" Frank stumbled out a response, noticing the way that Gerard's body began to tense all over, but before he could quite manage to explain himself it seemed like Gerard had already come to his own conclusions in regards to the situation.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." He got up from the bed and walked to the other side of the hotel room, leaning against the window and trying not to cry, because honestly what the fuck, what the fuck? "She told you, I'm fucking- I fuck-..."

"Gerard, she didn't tell-" Frank began to protest, but Gerard was suddenly very adamant that he didn't get a single word in at all.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..." Gerard began to tap his fingernails down against the windowsill. "Fuck, I'm sorry, I'm fucking sorry, I'm a fucking mess. I can deal with it, I'm-"

"Gerard, what the fuck are you-"

"Fuck..." Gerard ran a hand back through his hair, before just leaning back against the wall. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I can't believe she told you I mean, what the fuck I mean, that was private, that was my feelings, who the fuck does she think I am? Is it like a fucking joke or something? Yeah, let's all go and laugh at my stupid fucking crush on you. Stupid fucking- fuck... crush. Bit more than a crush, really, the fuck does it matter, though?" He let out a sigh, looking up at the ceiling, and letting himself fixated on the slight variations in shades of off white. "You know, and oh my god, I fucking... wait you said it wasn't bad, do you...?" The end of Gerard's sentence seemed to fuck off into another plane of existence, leaving Frank with a chance to fucking speak for the first time in a good three minutes now.

However, in all honesty, Frank was pretty certain that speech was the last thing he was capable of in that moment, as he sat on Gerard's bed in their hotel room: sick to his stomach, but not bad kind of sick, just... butterflies - crazy kind of butterflies, and his head spinning on his shoulders, because Lindsey hadn't told him shit.

Lindsey hadn't told him shit, and Gerard had just blurted it out, and he was fucking... fucking... he had a crush on him? That was this? Fuck, that was all this was? Frank wasn't at all sure what to think at all, fuck, he wasn't even sure if he was properly breathing at this point either.

In fact, the only thought that had really crossed his mind was the fact that Megan Clifford would absolutely shit herself if she could hear their current conversation.

"Gerard..." Frank finally regained the ability to speak after what honestly felt like about twenty seven years, but was only really about four minutes, at most. "Is that seriously what you've... oh my god... you're twenty nine, and this is about a crush?"

"I..." Gerard was yet to regain the power of speech, and instead looked at Frank, nothing more than dumbfounded.

"Lindsey didn't tell me shit, you know?" Frank continued, letting a smile creep onto his face. "Just told me that it wasn't a bad thing. You just told me."

Gerard's eyes grew so wide that Frank feared they might pop out of their sockets. "I.... fuck... I..." He stammered, pacing nervously around the room. "Fuck, fuck, fuck- I- holy fuck, I'm sorry, I-"

"Gerard," Frank got up from the bed, and made his way over to the man, grabbing him by the wrist in order to get his attention. "Stop being an idiot. Why are you freaking out? I'm not freaking out, come on. Honestly, I'm..." Frank struggled to find the right word. "I'm...? I'm... I don't know..."

"Fuck, course you don't know, I'm sorry I shouldn't fucking throw this shit on you, it's my fucking fault and I'm sorry-" Gerard practically threw his words at Frank, stumbling over them in a great race to get them out of his mouth as fast as physically possible.

"Gerard." Frank's voice grew stern, and he made a point of not loosening his grip on Gerard's wrist, even as he struggled against him with quite the sense of urgency. "I'm..." Frank, once again found himself stumped for any word to quite convey just what he was feeling.

"Frank, just let me go-"

"No, Gerard, come on, look at me, just listen for a minute, alright?" Frank's face eased back into a smile as Gerard finally came to pull his gaze up to meet Frank's: the two sharing a moment of awkward, prolonged uncertainty.

Frank let out a sigh, suddenly finding himself far too close to Gerard's face. "I'm..." He tried again, but again found his mind blank, instead fixated on Gerard, and just how close he was, and how that all seemed to add up inside of his head, and how as he continued to let it do so, everything just seemed to make so much sense, and how potentially disastrous ideas seemed to hold very little weight anymore.

And that was how, at ten twenty eight in the evening, on the second day of the France trip, a good ten months after they'd first laid eyes upon one another, Frank Iero finally kissed Gerard Way.

And Megan Clifford was squatting obliviously to 5SOS just a few rooms away.

-

aries: the table that ryan and megan broke

taurus: the weed ryan smuggled in his ass

gemini: the frerard group chat megan put frank in

cancer: megan's frerard shipping video

leo: lindsey waving at megan when filming for her frerard video

virgo: the crappy bracelet with the french flag on it that frank bought gerard

libra: the goblin eyes in the eyeful tower

scorpio: the oppressed goblins in ethiopia

sagittarius: megan's 5sos exercise routine

capricorn: ryan's plan to wake up at 4:20 and play smoke weed everyday

aquarius: megan's solid continuous and beautiful love for jahmed

pisces: that fucking random ass frerard shit at the end pssshttt who cares about that

love u guys !!!!

leave ur votes and comments if u want !!!!!!!! good vibes!!!!