The next day at school, Frank was excited to see Gerard again. Now that he was finally acquainted with him and able to talk to him, that was all he wanted to do. However, he was rather upset to walk into chemistry that day and see that Gerard was talking to someone else. A particular Pete Wentz, whom Frank didn't know very well, but he knew who he was.

When Gerard saw Frank walk into the room, he smiled towards him, waving his hand to invite him over to where him and Pete were sitting. Frank smiled shyly and went over there, taking a seat at a desk beside them. "Hi Frank. This is Pete. Not sure if you've met him before."

He spoke softly, not really liking to come into the presence of unfamiliar people. He much rather preferred staying as he was, and he really hoped that becoming friends with Gerard wouldn't automatically involve him having to talk to every one of his friends. "Hi Pete." He noticed that Pete had the wings of a bluejay, which was pretty rare and quite nice to look at.

They were smaller than Gerard and Frank's wings, being that they belonged to a smaller bird. That was pretty unique. "Hi Frank. I don't believe we've met before, though I've definitely heard about you in the past." He put his hand out, and Frank took it in his own to shake his hand.

After all the introduction stuff was out of the way, Pete and Gerard went back to talking. Frank would be lying if he didn't say that he felt left out. He could tell that Pete and Gerard were already close friends, and he didn't quite know how to feel about that. He observed the way that Gerard talked, how his hands made movements when he was explaining something, how his lower lip tilted to the side when he was speaking, and everything else.

Pete started to notice that Frank wasn't doing much in terms of conversation, and that's when he saw the way that Frank was looking at Gerard. He had a little gleam in his eyes that sparked admiration. Pete knew by then that something else was definitely going on, and it was funny to him how Gerard was completely oblivious to Frank's actions.

"So as I was saying," Gerard continued, snapping Frank out of his gaze. "I was planning on inviting Pete over to my house after school today. Do you want to come Frank?" Frank was taken aback by the fact that he was actually being invited to someone's house. As much as he enjoyed the offer, he didn't really want to be sitting in the corner of the room (probably losing his religion) while Gerard and Pete had the time of their lives chatting it up.

Unfortunately for him, that little hopeful look in Gerard's eyes was something he couldn't say no to, and he had no choice but to oblige. "Oh, I guess I could come along. I'll have to ask my dad first though." Gerard nodded excitedly, and Frank thought to himself how miserable he might be if the night goes south. As long as Gerard was happy though, that made it all worth it.

"Frank is that something on your wings?" Pete asked curiously, touching the back of Frank's wings and looking at them closely.

"What? Where?" Frank tried to maneuver himself to where he could see whatever was on his wings, but it was to no avail. He wouldn't be able to see it, and all he had was to hope for Pete to get it off his wings.

"Oh it's no use trying to find it in this light, we'll have to go to the mirror. We'll be back soon Gerard!" And then Pete grabbed Frank's arm and practically dragged him to the bathroom. No, there wasn't anything on Frank's wings. Pete just wanted to make an excuse to talk to him in private, and thankfully, no one else happened to be in the bathroom when they got there.

"Uh- what's this about? Did I do something wrong?" Frank was really confused to say the least. He didn't really know what to expect from Pete Wentz. As far as he knew, Pete would only ever bring people into the bathroom to give them blowjobs, and while that might flatter him, he wasn't interested in Pete in that way.

"No you didn't do anything wrong. But see Frank, you're trying to be sly but it's painfully easy to tell. You fancy Gerard, don't you?" A smirk creeped onto Pete's face as Frank wondered how fucking obvious he was being right now. Frank's face showed signs of nervousness as his eyes went wider. "See, it's totally obvious right now. You do fancy him!"

"I- okay- I'm not going to lie to you, maybe I do. But what does it matter? It's not like he likes me in that way, and even if he did, he's probably over it now." Pete rolled his eyes.

"Frank, I've known Gerard since middle school and let me tell you, when that boy likes someone, it takes a lot for him to get over it. I doubt that would be the case." Pete put his finger to his chin in a thoughtful manner, as if he was considering something. "If it makes you feel any better, he's always had an eye out for you." Pete chuckled when he saw Frank's eyes go wider.

"W-what do you mean by that?" At this point he was too nervous to determine if it was 'an eye out for killing' him or not, and that slightly concerned him. He also wasn't thinking straight, given that the topic of conversation was Gerard Way.

"I mean, he's never explicitly said he had a crush on you, but I wouldn't be surprised. Oh boy, I'll always remember the first day of middle school, when he saw the 'boy with the beautiful wings in the hallway' ha. He wouldn't shut up about you!" Frank had to stop himself from blushing profusely at that because, well, if Gerard Way had said that about him, he felt like the world had blessed him right then and there.

"Really? You're not fucking with me right now?" Frank was genuinely surprised. He had no idea that Gerard even knew who he was before they started following each other on Instagram. Pete shook his head.

"Not fucking with you at all. Don't worry Frank. I'll be a big help with this kind of thing. You'll be thanking me later." Pete smirked and walked out of the bathroom, leaving Frank to wonder just what Pete meant by that. But shortly after, he walked out of the bathroom too, and went back to the classroom.

When they got back into the classroom, Gerard was still sat at the same desk. He saw them re-enter and greeted them. "Did you manage to get whatever it was off of Frank's wings?" Pete nodded and then the class started.

School was over and Frank was nervous as ever to head over to Gerard's house. He had called his dad previously and asked if it was alright for him to stay over. His dad's precise words were 'of course son, just make sure to use protection.' That emitted an annoyed groan from Frank as he hung up the phone. Afterwards, Gerard said he would be fine to give him a ride over to his house, so that's how Frank planned on getting there.

Pete and Gerard were already in the parking lot when he stepped outside, so he just walked over to where they were standing. "Hey Frank. So are you guys ready to go now?" Gerard asked both of them, and Frank nodded while Pete hesitated for a second.

"Wait a minute, my phone is vibrating." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed a button, putting it up to his ear. "Hello?" A few seconds went by before he spoke again. "Oh- okay I'll be right there." He hung up and put his phone back in his pocket. "I'm sorry guys, I have to go home. Family emergency. You two can still hang out though, I won't mind."

"Are you sure?" Gerard asked carefully. He was a bit disappointed that Pete had to opt out. Not that he wasn't content with it just being him and Frank, but he didn't want Pete to feel left out. "I don't want you to miss out on anything if you don't want to."

"No I'm sure," Pete assured him. "You and Frank can have tons of fun without me, I'll just see you guys at school tomorrow, yeah?" Then he walked away to go try and catch his bus before it left, but not before sending a discreet wink in Frank's direction.

What Frank and Gerard didn't know was that Pete's phone was never vibrating. And he never got a call. This was simply a way for him to get Frank and Gerard alone.

"So I guess it's just you and I then, huh?" Gerard smiled at Frank. "C'mon, let's go now." He unlocked his car and got into the drivers seat while Frank sat on the passengers side. Soon they were pulling out of the parking lot. "Mikey will be there when we get home, but you don't really have to worry about him. He's invited his friend Ray over so they'll probably be playing video games downstairs or something."

"Oh that's fine, I don't really care who all is there." That was a bit of a lie. Frank didn't want a bunch of people to be their all at once. He wasn't really a crowd person. But he would go with it if he meant he got to stay with Gerard, and he was sure there wouldn't be that many people anyway.

"This stupid lock..." Gerard muttered. When he finally unlocked the door after many awkward minutes of fiddling with the keys, Frank applauded him jokingly. Gerard then took a bow, "thank you thank you, I'm sure it was an astounding performance." That caused laughter to emit from the both of them before they walked inside.

As Gerard had predicted, Mikey and Ray were sitting on the couch in the living room, playing some type of game. Frank walked behind them to try and see what it was, and he saw that they happened to be playing Pokémon Shield.

When he was standing behind them, he took a quick moment to look at Ray's wings. They were eagle wings, it was easy to tell. More specifically, they were golden eagle wings, which was a very cool looking color scheme that suited Ray perfectly.

"Seriously? Again?" Gerard laughed. "I swear that for the past month, every time I've walked in this room, you guys are always playing that game. Don't you get bored?" Gerard was joking of course, just glad that his brother had a close friend to play games with after school.

"But this is important!" Mikey protested. "Ray promised me that he would catch a shiny Ponyta for me, and we're not going to stop until we get one."

"What's so special about the shiny Ponyta?" Gerard asked, making Mikey, Ray, and even Frank gasp in surprise. He raised his arms in mock defense, obviously unaware of the war he had just begun.

"The Galarian Ponyta looks like a unicorn!" Mikey argued. "And when you evolve it into a Rapidash, it's mane and tail get longer. It's majestic, Gerard."

"Also," Frank began, "the shiny Pokémon are the rarest ones to find, so if Ray found a shiny Galarian Ponyta for Mikey, he would pretty much hit the jackpot."

"Okay that makes a bit more sense," Gerard added. "But why can't you get one on your own, Mikes? It seems like you're just making Ray do all the work for you."

That's when Ray began to speak. "Mikey has some sort of weird superstition about how the game doesn't want him to get it, so he thinks that if he tries to catch one, it'll never happen. I don't mind doing it for him though, I've had quite a bit of luck with my shiny hunting in the past, so I've gotten pretty patient with it over time."

Gerard nodded and turned to notice when Frank smiled at the television screen because he saw a Blissey. Snapping him out of his little trance of staring at the boy beside him, his mom came into the living room. "Hey boys! Dinner will be ready in about an hour, so make sure to be in the kitchen in a little while." She stopped when she noticed the new face standing in her living room. She smiled and walked over to where Frank was standing. "Hi there, you must be Frank! I'm Gerard and Mikey's mother, Donna."

"Hi," Frank replied shyly. When Donna held her hand out to the boy, he hastily shook it. Gerard giggled at his nervousness.

"It's such a nice thing to see Gerard hanging out with someone besides Pete for once," Donna laughed. "Don't get me wrong, Pete is such a lovely fellow, but gosh, he's probably at our house more than he's at his own by now."

Frank was listening to Donna speak of course, but he was very distracted by one thing. Donna didn't have wings. And that was something that never happened. She would have had to have wings before, right? Because Gerard was a purebred, and if she didn't have wings, that wasn't possible. So what happened to them?

After Donna was done talking, they had an hour to kill before dinner was ready, so Gerard proposed an idea. "Hey Frank do you want to come hang out in my room for awhile? We could talk and stuff." Frank simply nodded and followed Gerard up the stairs to his room.

"Gerard do you mind if I ask a question?" Frank asked as they entered Gerard's room. He didn't know if it would be rude to ask about Donna's wings, but his curiosity was getting the better of him, so he decided to go ahead and try anyway.

"Sure thing, Frank. What do you need?" He sat down on his bed and patted the spot next to him, so Frank went and sat down beside him.

"Why doesn't your mom have wings? I hope that's not too personal of a question, but I just noticed it, and I didn't think that was possible."

"Oh no that's an interesting story actually," Gerard began. "Do you want the long version or the short version?" Gerard asked, lifting an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"The long version will do. If it's interesting, then I'd love to hear about it."

"Alright," Gerard replied, turning to face Frank. "So when my mom was younger, she had to spend quite a bit of time in the hospital. The doctors said that her wings weren't developing right. She was on special treatment her whole childhood until she was sixteen, when they stopped putting her on medicine. They thought the problem was solved by then. But one day it all fell apart all of a sudden, and her wings started causing her intense pain. It got so bad that she couldn't even lay down without yelling from the agony. The doctors decided that the only option was to remove her wings, so that what they did, and she doesn't have them anymore."

"Woah," Frank responded. "Your mom must be super strong. How does it feel to live without wings though? It seems like it would make it harder to balance or something." Even more so, it seemed dangerous to live without wings. They were adapted for survival. Humans without wings? Never.

"As far as I know, it's not really that difficult," he shrugged. "She said it took some getting used to when she first tried to walk without out them. Now that she's used to them though, she says her back feels so much lighter, and she doesn't ever get back pain."

That shocked Frank. Back pain was a very common thing with humans. Since they had heavy wings to keep around with them all day, every day, their backs got tired really easily. Just as he couldn't imagine living without wings, he couldn't imagine living without the pain either. It seemed impossible, though obviously, that wasn't the case. "Wow. That's amazing."

"Yeah," Gerard replied. "I-" but before he could continue, they were interrupted by a scream coming from downstairs. Not a bloody murder type scream, but more of an excited squeal. "Mikey what the fuck-" Gerard said before walking out of the room, causing Frank to quietly giggle and follow him out. They went downstairs and saw Mikey standing up in front of the television.

"Guys look!" Mikey pointed to the screen. It was displaying the image of something that resembled a unicorn with a yellow and green mane and tail. "Ray got the shiny Ponyta for me! I can finally play with it now!" He had a bright smile on his face, and Ray had a more relaxed one, seeming content with his accomplishment.

"That's great Mikey but could you please avoid screaming so loud that it reverberates around the entire house. I thought someone was dying for a second." Gerard rolled his eyes playfully and smiled at his brother.

At the dinner table, Frank was quick to start eating. The smell of the food filling the house was enough to make him hungry, and luckily for him, there wasn't any meat in it either. It was a pretty simple pasta dish consisting of just rigatoni and tomato sauce, but Donna had put certain spices on it that just happened to make it taste absolutely amazing.

Frank was dreading the inevitable though, but he knew it was something he couldn't avoid. Those terrible questions that were always asked around dinner time. Those 'get to know me' questions that required you to give out a bunch of useless and random information about yourself. Frank always hated those, mostly because he hated small talk, and that was absolutely defined as small talk.

For the most part, Donna asked the most normal questions like 'what's your favorite color?' Or Frank's personal least favorite, 'what do you want to be when you get older?' Frank didn't fucking know, and he didn't want to decide right then and there. He was still a teenager after all, only 17 years old. He knew he only had one more year to think about what he wanted to do, but he decided he would deal with that topic towards the end of senior year.

Frank always sort of had this fantasy in his mind that he wanted to live out. He imagined himself being a stay-at-home dad with an amazing husband and a few kids. Of course, society always expected men to work and find jobs, so he didn't exactly want to tell people that. He also didn't want to straight up tell people that he was gay because well, society didn't exactly like that either.

But regardless of Frank's fantasy, he knew it was very improbable for something like that to happen. There were multiple things that were required for that dream of his to come true. First, he had to find a husband. Okay that was already hard enough considering the minimum amount of friends that Frank had. Secondly, his husband needed to be okay with Frank staying home while he worked. Frank would still be working, he just wouldn't be getting paid. He would be doing stuff like laundry and cooking and taking the kids to school. And no, that wouldn't make him the woman in the relationship. Fuck gender roles.

He knew his father would be supportive with whatever he chose to do with his life, but deep down, he knew that his dad probably wanted him to get a job or learn a trade or something. He could understand that, but it just wasn't really what he was planning on.

As Frank continued to think about the topic while eating his food, his mind began to wander, and that's how he began thinking of Gerard. He started to wonder what Gerard wanted to do with his life, or what he was already planning on.

Soon, his mind started to think of Gerard as being Frank's husband in the future. His job would most likely be art-related, seeing that it wasn't unusual for him to post his art on Instagram whenever he felt like it. Stop it Frank, that's not going to happen. Frank tried to crowd his brain with other thoughts, forcing his little fantasy out of the way, but it never worked, so he had no choice but to sit thinking about it for the rest of dinner.

Eventually, dinner was over though, and they all put their plates up to be washed. Mikey and Ray went back to the living room so that Mikey could battle with his new Ponyta. Donna insisted on going to bed early. As for Gerard and Frank, they went back up to Gerard's room to continue some of their previous conversation.

~~~

A/N: Pokémon is my hyperfixation, can you tell? Lol.

Song of the Chapter: Two-Player Game- Be More Chill Soundtrack