///I feel like everyone should know that this is my favorite piece of artwork ever, alright thank you.///

Gerard Way was extremely punk rock and extremely hardcore. He was the type of person you wouldn't just walk up to, because if you said something remotely offensive to him, he would gauge your eyes out with a plastic spork from the school cafeteria, put them in your chili, and then make you eat them as the entire lunch room watched you. Obviously that's hyperbole, but actually not too far from the truth. Point was, Gerard was a punk.

So it was very surprising to everyone when they saw him roaming the hallways with Frank Iero. Frank was possibly the softest boy at the school. He had always seemed so fragile, as if he would completely fall apart if you went as far as to poke him in the shoulder. He relied on the comfort of his many multicolored sweaters to keep him company, and now he relied on an anarchist punk-boy. Ironic.

"People are staring at us," Frank spoke quietly, walking beside Gerard with his books in hand. They were walking to their first class they both had together, which was science.

"Let them stare, it doesn't matter. They're probably just surprised that I can actually manage to make a friend in this hellhole." Gerard rolled his eyes, flipping off some random kid who had muttered some sort of slur under his breath.

"Well you're a pleasant person to be around," Frank commented. "Don't they know we've been friends forever though? Since like- 3rd grade. The only reason we stopped hanging out was... well... I can't remember why we stopped hanging out."

"I don't think it was caused by anything," Gerard shrugged. "We just sort of lost contact. That's alright. Happens to the best of us. But we're friends now and that's what matters." Gerard smiled at Frank, and Frank had no choice but to replicate it.

Frank loved the way that Gerard let his guard down around him. He always kept up this tough image to scare off other students at school, but whenever he was around Frank, he didn't seem tough at all. He was kind of just like a teddy bear, which is such a common simile, but it really felt true.

It was funny the way that Gerard and Frank became friends again. It was 8th grade. Frank had been joking with his current friend group about being gay, and Gerard thought he was just being an arrogant straight guy, so he took it upon himself to call Frank a "homophobic asshole." Frank then proceeded to stare at Gerard in confusion before realizing that he didn't know he was being sarcastic, and he quickly cleared it up.

"Oh no! I'm not homophobic, I promise. I mean, I actually am gay I wasn't just saying that-" and he stopped talking when he noticed the blush on Gerard's face. That made him intrigued. Gerard had never before shown any signs of embarrassment or weakness, and all of a sudden he did, in front of Frank.

"Sorry," Gerard quickly muttered, scrambling from the table. And Frank would never know why Gerard had left so quickly and seemed so flustered in that moment.

But Gerard knew that it was because when Frank turned around, and he got a look at his face, he really thought he had found that face of an angel. And he really thought that Frank might've been the most beautiful human being on planet earth. And well, he would've been correct. He had never even had a good look at his face since the third grade, and it was far too overwhelming to see how much he changed.

But only Gerard knew that as him and Frank walked towards their next class, and that's when Gerard got an idea.

"Hey, do you wanna skip?" He asked Frank, stopping them in the hallway and turning to face him. "Other kids have said that we're just watching a video in science and there's no work to go along with it. It's probably boring."

Frank thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. That's fine. I don't really want to be here right now anyway."

~~~

Upon leaving the school building, they had really just wandered off somewhere until they eventually reached a park. Gerard led Frank over to a bench and sat down with him by his side.

"Gee! Look at the ducks!" Frank pointed excitedly to a family of baby ducks following around their mom. Gerard giggled as Frank took his phone out to take a few pictures of them.

"Hold on, give me the phone and stand in front of me, Frankie." Frank handed his phone over to Gerard and stood up from the bench, standing a few feet away from him. Gerard lifted the phone and positioned it so that you could see both Frank and the ducks in frame, and he snapped a picture. "Got it!"

Frank retreated back to the park bench and grabbed his phone, looking at the photo. "Oh my god Gee! I love it!" He put his phone back into the pocket of his light blue skinny jeans and wrapped both of his arms around Gerard's waist, resting his head on his chest. Gerard blush and moved his hand to run his fingers through Frank's hair gently.

Frank had always seemed to be really cuddly, but Gerard didn't question it. He liked it, it was refreshing for a change.

Eventually, Frank had ended up laying down across the bench with his head on Gerard's lap, looking up at the sky. Gerard noticed the gleam in his eyes whenever he looked at the clouds. His life was really beginning to revolve around Frank.

"Gee, can I ask you something?" Frank directed his eyes to the taller boy, and smiled softly, making the other's heart practically explode.

"Of course," Gerard responded nervously, messing with a few strands of Frank's hair.

"Why do you act so tough around everyone and then act completely different around me?" Gerard blushed and let his hair fall over his face, hopefully covering some of it up.

"I have to act tough around everyone because they're all jerks. You're the only one at the school who's genuinely nice, Frankie."

"But I don't understand. Everyone wants to be friends with you. Why don't you make more friends besides me?"

"Frank, the only reason they want to be friends with me is so I won't beat them up," Gerard laughed, humorlessly. "I'm friends with you because you've never been scared of me and you've always been nice."

Frank just nodded, nuzzling his face into Gerard's stomach. "I like you, Gee," he mumbled against Gerard's skin before sitting up and leaning over to kiss Gerard on the cheek quickly. Frank had no idea what he was doing to the boy beside him, but Gerard was a mess and he was completely afraid of talking, because he knew his words would be all jumbled up.

"I like you too, Frank," he said, becoming more flustered by the second.

"No I mean, I like like you, Gee," Frank emphasized. Gerard's eyes widened in a mixture of realization and shock.

He grabbed Frank's hand and laced their fingers together. "I like like you too, Frankie." He leaned over and pecked Frank on the lips, and Frank couldn't help but giggle at how shy Gerard was around him.

Around everyone else, Gerard was an animal. Around Frank, he was speechless and timid. It was like being around Frank made him a completely different person.