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TW Panic attack, slight mention of seizures. Also Walmart, bc that place is traumatizing. 

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"Soup, slow down!"

Frank called after his dog as he stumbled through the Walmart they currently occupied, the bright red leash was pulled taut while Frank struggled to keep up with Soup.

Soup was a service dog, hence why he was in Walmart, only he was like an actually legit service dog, that Frank actually needed (he detected encroaching seizures, as well as other things), unlike 99.9999999999995% of all other 'service dogs' in Walmart.

Anyway, Frank had been looking through the cereal isle, with Soup happily by his side, when his dog started wandering off. Frank was unconcerned - he sniffed around the floor all the time - but he began trying to push past the outer reaches of his leash, pulling Frank several feet in one tug since he wasn't paying attention.

As tends to happen in gay fanfiction, things escalated quickly.

Frank was now tripping over his own feet as he barely kept up with Soup, who was determinedly dragging Frank... somewhere. They passed the canned food isle, and the juice isle, and about a lot more isles until Soup was finally slowing down. Frank breathed a sigh of relief as he could walk at a normal pace not so sickening to his short, unathletic legs, but Soup kept his nose sniffing, until they reached the bathrooms.

Did Soup really have to go to the bathroom?

Frank furrowed his eyebrows (causing a perfect child to be born and a rapist die of a stroke in the nearby vicinity, but he didn't know that), and watched Soup closely.

After a second Soup began whining at the door, so Frank pushed it open, revealing a normal--looking-low-budget-grocery-store-bathroom.

Soup ran in, and Frank let go of his leash, letting the dog go where he wished. He trotted right to the last stall (that really big one that is actually for wheelchairs but mainly gets used by claustrophobic toddlers), and crawled in under the door.

Frank was sure he was about to give someone a heart attack, but he heard a quiet whimpering sound, and a shaky voice said "Hi, puppy."

Frank pushed on the door a bit, which swung straight open, revealing the fact that the occupant had neglected to lock it properly, as well as revealing the occupant himself.

He was a young man, probably around Frank's age, with dark hair and clothes, curled into the wall and shaking violently. Soup was pressed into the stranger, whining and looking at him with puppy dog eyes as if to ask him to feel better. Now that Frank was close enough, he could hear the stranger's rapid breathing and small whimpers, and it hit him that he was clearly having a panic attack of some sort.

Frank rushed forward, very unsure of what to do. He had honestly never dealt with anyone when they were like this, so he was at a loss. 

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

The stranger shook his head violently, removing his hands from clutching Soup's soft fur and clamping them over his ears. 

Frank's eyes widened, reaching out automatically to touch him comfortably, but the stranger flinched so violently is was noticeable through all his tremors, and Frank dropped his hands, unsure of what to do besides push his dog forwards as an offering of comfort. 

That was essentially what he did, because Soup was already taking care of him, snuggling into his shaking limbs and licking his face and neck. The stranger held on to Soup for dear life, one of his hands petting his fur almost frantically. 

Frank wasn't sure how long he sat on the floor of the bathroom, but it was quite a while before the man on the floor stopped shaking, and settled with his face in Soup's fur.

He was honestly feeling rather awkward at the moment, but he figured he could give the stranger some time, since that was quite the ordeal he had just suffered through. 

A few minutes later, he was petting Soup softly, whispering to him briefly.

Frank did the best representation of his extreme social awkwardness as he could think of, which was to clear his throat awkwardly and interrupt the special moment his dog and this stranger were having on the floor of a Walmart bathroom.

"Um, hi," he said. Awkwardly, just in case you needed a reminder.

The stranger's head whipped up from Soup, wiping his face and sniffling, which grossed Frank out internally at the thought of sucking snot back up one's nose, but he suppressed his weird thoughts before they registered on his face and were most likely misunderstood.

"H-hi," the stranger said, shakily - as he had been quite a lot of this afternoon - despite the single-syllable nature of this particular word. "I-I'm sorry, is this your dog?"

He petted Soup's head softly as he said it, and if Soup were a cat he would have purred. As a dog, he made a strange noise in the back of his throat that vaguely represented contentment and snuggled into him.

"Yeah, his name's Soup," Frank said, smiling crookedly at the pair.

"Soup," the stranger repeated quietly. He looked at the dog and pet him some more.

"I'm Frank," Frank offered, thinking he should probably be polite now.

"Gerard," said the One Who Was Apparently Gerard.

As rare as it would seem in a Walmart bathroom, Gerard didn't come off as your usual ew-Walmart-person-stay-away-from-me type of guy. (Because yes that is totally a type).

His hair was dark and messy, as well as his clothes, and his black skinny jeans had holes in them, but he was wearing a clean Nirvana shirt and a dark jean jacket with an impressive collection of pins on it.

And Soup liked him so there was that.

Then again, Soup liked to eat pennies and we all know how that turns out.

Frank then realized he had just left a very awkward (there's that word again) silence between them, but luckily Gerard was distracted by Soup.

"So, um, are you okay?"

Gerard's face turned red, and he looked back down at Soup after glancing up briefly.

"Uh, yeah, I'm sorry."

Frank furrowed his eyebrows (with the same effect, only this time some lost pets got adopted and a nice barista got a raise because he was with Gerard as well, and we all know Gerard makes everything better).

"Don't apologize."

Gerard looked up and frowned.

"What?"

Frank studied his face and was suddenly slapped by the realization that damn, Gerard had really pretty eyes.

"I mean, you don't need to say sorry for things like that. It's your right to feel like you feel, don't apologize." He sort of half-shrugged somewhere near the end, due to his extreme awkwardness that I just might have mentioned earlier today.

Gerard stared at him with a weird expression, which he would soon come to know summed up their relationship 40% of the time.

Just then, Soup whined, wishing for attention from his newly designated father, because in his mind they were already married.

Gerard and Frank reached for Soup's head at the same time, and brushed their hands together.

Both of their cheeks blazed bright red, and as they locked eyes, they knew they would never be apart.

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Okay well that went hella down hill and I didn't put too much effort into that panic attack so fuck me.

I should probably mention I was disassociated asf when I wrote this, so.

Anyway, update on my life, I got the Catcher in the Rye, which I love, and I made a very very soft scarf called a cuddle scarf, I can probably post a pic tomorrow, and it's twirly and soft and I sleep with it now.

I'm also enrolling for my high school courses and I drew a monster named Vinnie and he has a razor smile and a saw arm and a weird body but I love him and we're friends now. Every time I get creeped out by dark corners I just wave and go 'Hey Vinnie'. Idk why but Vinnie is the perfect name for him.

Also I started a mafia.

So yeah, nice to see you humans, I've got a shit ton of drafts and maybe some day I'll actually post them, who knows?

- Brightside