This is a filler chapter, I'm very sorry, but I need a way to connect the plot.

School on Monday was starting off hectic, because more flight lessons were on the way, and everyone was excited.

However, Frank was currently in his class about creatures and beasts, so not much excitement was to be had there. It had been the third time that he had to listen through a lecture about dragons this month, and he was starting to get tired of it.

Gerard wasn't in this class with him, which was pretty sad. In fact, no one he knew was in this class with him, so it really bummed him out.

Come to think of it... Pete was supposed to be in this class, so he had no idea where the boy was currently.

"How often do you come out here?" Mikey Way asked a smug Pete Wentz, who happened to be leaning against the outer wall of the school.

"Oh just occasionally. Whenever I'm feeling down or I don't wanna go to a certain class."

Mikey nodded and looked down, biting his lip from nervousness. He didn't usually skip classes, and when he did, it was the ones that weren't necessary to get an education. Like gym and stuff.

"You look nervous. Why?" Pete asked, catching on to his anxious behavior.

Mikey simply shrugged, messing with his hands and fidgeting with them, until he felt Pete's hand take one of them away. He blushed profusely and tried to look away to hide it, but to no avail as Pete used his other hand to make Mikey face him.

"Mikey your hands are shaking- and you're really pale- are you alright?" Pete simply clutched onto Mikey's hand, looking into his eyes with concern.

"No, yeah, I'm fine- I'm just..." he struggled to get the words out, stuttering in the process. "I- I don't know."

"You don't have to be shy around me, y'know." Pete assured, stroking Mikey's cheek softly with his thumb. Instinctively, Mikey leaned into the touch, and Pete smiled softly at the other boy.

"I know, I'm just not used to much attention, except from Ray, and he hardly comes round." He glanced down at his and Pete's still interlocked hands, and he was very self conscious about the sweat covering his palms. "My hands are clammy, I'm sorry-"

"Hey I don't mind, so are mine," Pete giggled. "Anyway, I'd be happy to give you lots of attention if you want it, Mikey."

"Oh that's great Pete, really, but I don't wanna take you away from your own friends-"

"Nonsense," Pete cut him off, lifting Mikey's hand up and kissing the back of it before putting it back down. Mikey sucked in his breath all at once, very noticeably too. "I consider you a friend Mikey, and I like to give my friends affection, so therefore you are now a receiver of affection from the one and only Pete Wentz."

"Oh-" Mikey managed to choke out, shooting an awkward smile in Pete's direction. Little to his knowledge, Pete found his shyness and awkwardness quite adorable.

"I think this period will be ending soon. We both have art together," Pete smiled. "Let's go inside."

"Yeah, okay," Mikey responded. He expected Pete to drop his hand and allow them to start walking, but instead Pete kept his hand clung around Mikey's and pulled him along into the building.

Mikey was worried about people staring, but he tried to not focus on his racing thoughts and instead focus on the warmth he felt from Pete touching him.

When they got to art, they were the first ones to be in the class, and Pete led them to the back of the room so they could sit next to each other. He held Mikey's hand under the table, still noticing his state.

"Is this alright?" He asked quietly, wanting to make sure he wasn't crossing any barriers.

"Yeah yeah," Mikey breathed out. "It's fine, I'm just not used to it is all."

"You'll get used to it with time," he responded. And Mikey really had no words for that, because that implied that there would be more handholding in the future, and he just felt a certain way about that.

It was a good feeling, to say the least.

Finally, aviation lessons. A class that Frank actually had friends in. Well, one friend; Gerard. When Gerard spotted Frank across the courtyard, he shot him a smile and motioned over for him.

Frank wasted no time in making his way towards the yellow-haired boy, and he traveled with purpose in his steps. He finally got by his side and looked around for signs of anyone else showing up. There were a few other people, but they were just a tad bit early.

"Hi, Frankie," Gerard spoke up, causing the shorter one to look up at him and smile back.

"Hi Gee. I'm glad I finally get to see you, I haven't had a class with anyone I know all day." Frank's smile dropped to a half-frown, and Gerard felt sad for him.

"I'm sorry about that. At least you have me now," he commented, and Frank nodded, agreeing with that.

"Yeah, have you seen Pete today? He wasn't in beast studies, and I haven't seen him anywhere else."

Gerard shrugged in response. "Who knows, he could be anywhere. Sometimes he skips class if he doesn't feel like going. Was that a particularly exciting class?"

"Well no," Frank chuckled. "It was just another lecture about dragons. We already know about those."

"Well, then that's probably your answer," Gerard decided. Frank figured the same, it would honestly make sense. If he wasn't so scared of his dad finding out, he'd probably skip that class too.

Right on cue, Pete came into the courtyard and started heading towards Frank and Gerard. "Hey guys," he spoke out when he finally reached them.

"We were just talking about you," Gerard smiled. "Frankie said he hasn't seen you all day."

"Oh yeah," Pete laughed. "I skipped that boring class. Went to my smoking spot. Much better alternative, if you ask me."

"Told ya," Gerard clicked his tongue.

"Alright class!" The teacher started, getting everyone's attention. "So I'm sure you all know that the school dance will be coming up shortly. It is within our honor to proudly say that the 11th grade aviation club will be hosting it!"

A few people cheered, and some people groaned, being upset that they had to get involved with any social activities. Frank was a bit excited, and Gerard was too.

"So it's our responsibility to come up with a theme, and we get to make all the preparations. Today I figured we'd take a quick flight around the school to get our minds going, and then we would meet back here to share ideas."

Most students nodded their heads in understanding, and the teacher folded her hands together to say one more thing.

"Finally, please travel with a partner. We'd prefer if everyone stayed in groups of two, that way since there is an even number, everyone will have one. Alright, sounds good, take off when you're ready!"

The volume of the courtyard quickly escalated with everyone trying to partner up with someone. Frank felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Pete standing behind him.

"I'll go find someone else. You can go with Gerard," he smiled, before taking off somewhere else.

"You ready, Frankie?" Gerard asked as the two stood there together. Frank nodded and grabbed Gerard's hand, making the other's breath hitch unexpectedly.

Gerard really didn't just expect Frank to grab his hand like that, and considering the thoughts he had about him a few nights before, he wasn't very much prepared, emotionally.

Frank was oblivious to his nervousness and he began flapping his wings and Gerard followed, until they finally took flight and began the path around the school. "So what are some of your ideas for themes?" Frank decided to start the conversation off.

It was hard for Gerard to think since he was so distracted by Frank's hand holding his own. "Oh um, I'm not too sure yet- Frank- why are you holding my hand?" He decided to cut to the chase just because he was desperate for answers.

Frank looked a bit confused. "Well we have to travel in partners, and it would be helpful to make sure we're flying at the same pace," he concluded. Oh. That made sense.

Gerard looked around and noticed that they weren't the only pair holding hands, so he guessed it wasn't as significant as he was making it out to be. "Oh. I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah. Anyway... ideas?" Frank continued on.

"Oh yeah, well, I don't know, I was thinking it would be cool to have a theme like maybe outer space or disco but those are kind of basic..." he trailed off.

"I actually like those ideas," Frank smiled. "I don't even have any good ones. I was thinking fucking tropical." He laughed.

"That would actually be cool," Gerard responded. "Although, I wouldn't have much of a way to do that one since my wings are black."

"You could go with me since mine are colorful," Frank blindly suggested, but then he blushed when he realized he just indirectly asked Gerard to the dance. "I- I mean since I've got no one else to hang out there with anyway."

"Yeah. That would be cool." Gerard smiled, and he knew that they would only be going as friends, but deep down, he wished it was more than that. But he knew that Frank wouldn't want that.

Before they knew it, they had made it completely around the school, and everyone was back at the courtyard. The two of them landed and Frank led them over to the seats, letting go of Gerard's hand as they sat down. Gerard secretly wanted to keep holding Frank's hand, but he didn't have enough confidence to take it again.

He sighed softly and put his hands in his lap, waiting for the teacher to start talking again.

"Alright guys, now that we're all warmed up, would everyone like to share their ideas?" A few people raised their hands, and ideas were flowing freely around the courtyard.

Some people had mentioned 'red carpet.' Neither Frank nor Gerard thought that was very unique. Some other ones had been brought up too, and one of them was even western. Gerard giggled when Frank noticeably gagged at that one.

Gerard finally raised his hand.

"Gerard?" The teacher called on him. "What do you have in mind?"

Frank expected him to say the previous thoughts he had, but instead he decided to say something else. "I don't have anything, but Frankie over here does." Frank looked nervously at Gerard, and Gerard simply smiled at him encouragingly.

"Frank, would you like to share what you thought of?"

He felt like daggers were shooting into his skull with all the eyes on him. "Um sure," he scratched his neck nervously. "I was thinking of like a tropical theme. Like the rainforest or an island or something. I thought it would be cool since, y'know, we all have wings."

It was quiet for awhile, which just increased Frank's nervousness. Eventually, the silence was broken by Pete, thankfully.

"I really like that idea. Since our wings are all different it would be really colorful." He nodded enthusiastically, and a few other people joined in with him, agreeing.

Frank smiled softly as he felt a hand on his leg, and he looked over to see Gerard grinning at him. "See? It's a good idea. Everyone loves it." He put his hand on top of Gerard's and squeezed it affectionally to show that he was appreciative.

"Alright, so it seems everyone likes that idea, so it's settled! Tropical it is! At the next meeting, we'll start picking out decorations after we're done with the lesson. I can't wait to see you all next week."

Everyone departed and began heading their separate ways. Gerard stood up, Frank following shortly after him.

"So... what do you want to do now?" Frank asked shyly. He didn't want to directly ask Gerard to come over to his house, because he didn't want to sound desperate. After all, they had seen each other outside of school for an accumulation of over 30 hours now, and that was just in the past 7 days.

Gerard checked the time on his watch. "The sun will be setting soon. Do you want to grab something to eat with me before it's time to go home?"

"That sounds lovely," Frank replied.

Long story short, Mikey knew about his brother's plans to hang out with Frank, and he just couldn't resist the urge to ask Pete if he wanted to come over, so that's exactly what he did. Pete, of course, was very enthusiastic about this plan and had no trouble saying yes.

"Hi Donna," he spoke while walking into the kitchen and setting his stuff down near the door.

Donna looked around to see the familiar face standing near the doorway. "Oh hey Pete, Mikey is in his room, you can go make yourself at home," she smiled. Pete nodded and began walking down the hallway to Mikey's room.

It was weird. Usually when he walked down this hallway he was heading to Gerard's room, but that wasn't the case today. It wasn't a bad thing, it was just something he wasn't used to.

He decided if he should be polite and knock on the door or if he should just invite himself in. He figured since it was Mikey, he would go ahead and knock, because things were always different for Mikey than they were for Gerard.

He tapped exactly three knocks on the door before he heard a muffled 'come in!' So, with that invitation, he opened the door to see Mikey lying on the bed.

"Hi Mikes. Thanks for inviting me over today," he smiled.

"Oh sure," Mikey responded. "I just knew that Gerard had plans and you probably wouldn't mind so that's why..."

"Well of course," Pete chuckled. "I wouldn't have left that note on your arm if I didn't want you to invite me over some other time." Mikey nodded.

"So what do you wanna do? We could watch something on my laptop if you're up for it." Mikey wasn't really good at suggesting things. Him and Ray always played video games when he was over, but he had no idea if Pete was into video games like Ray was.

"That sounds great." Pete looked around the room and saw the silvery object sitting in the corner. "Is that it?" He pointed to it. Mikey nodded.

He got up and brought the laptop back to the bed, sitting down and opening it. It was already unlocked, but he was hesitant to open a browser.

"Hey- um- do you wanna do this? I just don't wanna open anything up and accidentally boot up any porn or something-" he laughed nervously.

"Oh!" Mikey exclaimed suddenly, sitting up from his current position. His cheeks went red. "Oh no you don't have to worry about that with me, I'm uh-" he didn't know how to say it. "I'm not into that stuff."

"Not into porn?" Mikey paused before nodding. "Man that's wild. How?"

"Oh," he sighed. "Um, I'm asexual." He didn't really want to tell Pete that right off the bat, because he was scared of rejection. He knew that was a dealbreaker for some people.

"Oh Really?" Pete's face lit up, and Mikey noticed it.

"Yeah... sorry if that's weird or anything..." he said.

"No no it's just," he breathed out, running his fingers through his hair momentarily. "I'm asexual too. I didn't know there were others at our school."

Mikey's mouth formed into an 'o' shape as what Pete just said really started to kick in. "Wow we're similar," he finally spoke, laughing and making Pete laugh as well.

"Yeah, I guess so. That's great though. Because now we can talk about asexual things," Pete giggled. Mikey smiled and agreed.

"I wish we could see each other more often," he said suddenly. Pete looked up and nodded slowly. "I mean, since I'm a freshman and you're a junior it's harder since we don't have classes together."

"Yeah, I get that. I wish we could too, but we can still see each other outside of school," he smiled, and Mikey couldn't help but smile back. He realized what they originally got the laptop out for though, so he coughed awkwardly before getting back to searching up Netflix.

"Do you have anything in mind you would want to watch?" He asked. Pete scratched his head, as if he was thinking real hard about it, and that made Mikey laugh.

"Not really. Do you have any suggestions?"

Mikey mimicked Pete's previous actions, earning himself a playful shove in the arm. He laughed it off before shaking his head. "I can't think of anything," he sighed.

"Well that's sad. Maybe we can just sit here and talk for awhile," Pete smiled.

Mikey smiled back. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"Wipe your mouth, you're making a fuckin' mess," Frank laughed as he watched Gerard get spaghetti sauce all over his face and the table.

Gerard scoffed while taking up a napkin and wiping his face with it. "You're one to talk. You dropped the garlic bread right when we got it," he retorted while glaring playfully at Frank.

"Oh whatever," Frank rolled his eyes. "At least I was quick to clean up, unlike the boy sitting across from me whose face resembles the contents of tomato soup right now." Gerard blushed and Frank smirked at the sight. "Now even more so."

"Oh shut up," he groaned, burying his face into his arms on the table.

Frank giggled before reaching over to softly stroke Gerard's hair. "It's okay, luv, I was only messing with you." Gerard felt his face heat up even more.

It was funny. Originally, Frank was the one getting all flustered and embarrassed around Gerard, and now it was the complete opposite, and every time Frank did something even remotely attractive or cute, Gerard felt like he was going to die.

Gerard finally removed himself from his protective arm-covering, and he sat up straight in his seat. He did, however, decide that he wanted to get Frank back for teasing him so much.

So, when Frank was looking away, as any five year old little sibling would do, he balled up his straw paper and flicked it towards Frank's face.

"Wha-hey!" Gerard giggled as he watched the balled up paper hit Frank right in the nose. "What was that for?"

"For teasing me, you goon," he replied. Frank stuck his tongue out at Gerard, making him laugh. Eventually Frank couldn't keep up his  'serious' face because of Gerard's laugh, so he started laughing too, and they shared that moment together.

When they were done with their laughing fit, the waitress came back to give them the bill. "Alright, whose paying?" She asked, looking over at Gerard in a strange way, as if expecting him to answer.

"We're splitting the check, actually," Frank responded for him. The lady didn't look away from Gerard, which made Frank very uncomfortable. Gerard wasn't acknowledging her, because he was trying to maintain eye contact with Frank, because he felt awkward about her eyes being on him.

"Okay, well, here it is," she said while sliding the bill over to Gerard purposefully. She walked off afterwards.

"That was odd," Frank spoke up. Gerard nodded and looked at the bill, groaning when he got a look at the bottom of it. "What's wrong?" Frank questioned.

Gerard slid the bill over to him, and Frank understood when he saw the lady's number scribbled under it along with a note saying 'call me <3.' Frank couldn't help the pang of jealousy that shot through him. "She looked like she was in her thirties. That's gross," Gerard complained.

"Ugh I'll tell her to fuck off later if she's persistent," Frank said. The two split up the bill and paid for their portions, purposefully not leaving a tip.

The lady came back with a flirtatious smile on her face, making the both of them want to vomit. "All done?" She asked, and Frank nodded towards her, handing her the money. She looked like she was about to question the lack of a tip, but Frank cut in before she could say anything.

"We've actually got to go now because we've got a really big test in high school tomorrow and we have to study. C'mon babe." Gerard looked slightly confused but nodded as soon as he realized what was happening. Frank was glad he picked up so quickly so he could play along.

They slid out of their seats and Frank grabbed Gerard's hand, possessively, leading him out of the restaurant. He saw an annoyed expression on the waitress's face, and he was glad to be able to get under her skin.

"Thanks Frankie," Gerard said when they were a safe distance from the restaurant.

"Of course," Frank replied, rubbing the back of Gerard's hand with his thumb. "Anytime."

~~~

A/N: YOU GUYS I GOT TO HOLD MY CRUSH'S HAND TODAY MY TINY GAY HEART IS HAPPY

Song of the Chapter: Everlong- Foo Fighters