"So, you know, telling us what this means would be good."

Gerard got rather impatient when he went into overprotective wanna-be boyfriend mode, to say the least, and it was annoying to everyone in the vicinity, even Frank, who just wanted everyone to shut the fuck up because his head kept spinning and he felt like he was going to be sick again and he was pretty sure that he couldn't move, and he reckoned that Gerard really wouldn't appreciate it if he threw up all over his lap.

"I'm thinking, I'm-" Ray began, letting out a sigh and glancing across at Mikey with a sudden, odd look in his eye, "it's... has to be something to with..." he trailed off, stepping closer to Frank and kneeling down, "okay, so how did this all start? With that book in the library?"

Frank managed to get himself to nod.

"Yeah, that book." Gerard answered for him, recognising that Frank was barely even capable of blinking as it was.

"And you still have that?" Ray went on to ask, his mind whirring as he ran through every possible possibility as fast as he could.

He nodded once more.

"In your dorm?" Gerard asked, Frank nodding in response again, "why?"

"I think you should probably burn it." Ray announced, getting up again and glancing back at Mikey.

"I think he's done enough burning things, don't you think?" Mikey snapped, raising his eyebrows a little.

"Mikey, I think you've done enough snappy sarcasm that nobody gives a shit about, don't you think?" Gerard narrowed his eyes at his brother, overprotective not even boyfriend mode in full swing now.

"I'm not talking about that kind of burning, I'm just talking about destroying the book. I think it could be cursed somehow. All these symptoms are linked to Frank's use of it, and I mean, there's no harm in trying it, is there?" Ray suggested, "Mikey could you get it?"

Mikey groaned, but nodded, making his way out and over to Frank's room.

"So that's our best fucking shot, burn some random book and hope he doesn't die." Gerard grew impatient, pulling Frank closer into him, which probably wasn't the best idea, considering just how prone to vomiting Frank reckoned himself to be in that moment.

"Gerard, what can I say? If this was obvious, it would be fixed by now, wouldn't it?" He let out a sigh, glancing between Frank and Gerard, "it's evident that you care a lot about him, okay, but believe me, Gerard, I'm trying my best to make sure he's okay."

"Not trying hard enough..." Gerard muttered, trailing off.

"Gerard..." Frank stumbled out, forcing himself to sit up: leaning onto Gerard's heavily as he did so.

"Frank?" Gerard's eyes widened, watching him with concern as he moved to lean into his side.

"See, look, he's not going to immediately die." Ray added, gesturing in Frank's direction.

"That really doesn't sound that reassuring." Gerard noted, scowling a little, before pausing, "you know last time this happened he was okay-"

"What do you mean last time?" Ray exclaimed, his eyes widening as he looked between the two.

"It wasn't as bad." Frank began, biting his lip a little.

"I helped him and he was okay," Gerard went on to say, "I don't know exactly what did it, but he was like burning hot so I cooled him down - cold shower, and like, my skin is really cold, I'm cold, I have no body heat, so that helped too."

Ray paused for a moment, "is it helping now?"

"It feels better but..." Frank sighed out, leaning further into Gerard, "I still feel like shit."

"So whatever it is is getting worse, worse with time perhaps..." Ray let out a sigh, glancing back towards the door and letting out a sigh as he noticed that Mikey wasn't back yet, "I think it's a curse or something. I don't know why someone would want to curse that book, or feel the need to, but if it is that, we need to consider the fact that there's someone here, someone with the power to do so, and someone who has bad intentions, and we really need to figure that out: figure them out and pray to God that they're not just out to hurt us."

"You're really great at making me feel better, you know that, Ray?" Gerard snapped, placing his arm around Frank.

"Would you rather I lied to you?" Ray asked, narrowing his eyes, "you don't want that."

"Yeah, I just want Frank to be okay." Gerard sighed out, "fuck this, why the fuck is this happening?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Ray continued, however Mikey returned before he could quite kill Gerard, which was either the best or the worst thing that had happened.

"Got it." Mikey exclaimed, closing the door behind him, holding the book wrapped up in one of Frank's shirts. "Your room mate now thinks your grandma is dead, by the way, but I needed an excuse to get in there and take this."

"Why have you got his shirt?" Gerard asked, gesturing towards the shirt the book was held in.

"Gerard, for fuck's sake, it's a fucking cursed object, I'm not gonna just touch it, am I?" Mikey rolled his eyes in disbelief, placing the book down on the table and leaving Ray to step closer to it.

"No, it's fine to touch," Ray continued, "the energy of it... bad energy, it's presented in the actual spells themselves... I think... I think it's like a trap, that the spells in the book curse you when you use them, or something like that," he stepped forward, opening the cover of the book and glancing at the first page.

"I'm still not particularly keen upon touching it." Mikey announced, stepping backwards a little.

"And so? What does it do? And how do we stop it?" Gerard asked, his tone rather impatient in nature.

"I'm not sure, but I would guess it sort of 'backfires'... I mean, you said Frank had a temperature and was 'burning up', and the spell he used involved fire so, I guess the same thing is happening to him."

"Wow, you could say, that Frank is literally dead hot."

"Mikey- are you fucking kidding me?"

-

Gerard even knew he was overworrying at this point, but that in no way hindered him in doing so, even as Frank had calmed down a little due to some weird shit Ray had done that Gerard couldn't quite think straight long enough to understand, and even as Frank had fallen asleep, curled up in his bed, Gerard still found himself pacing, racking his brains and generally freaking the absolute fuck out.

But he just couldn't stop himself, because he cared, and he cared too much - he cared so much, fuck he didn't even know what he'd do for Frank but he really didn't doubt the fact that he'd do pretty much anything. It was just Frank, and he really couldn't just lose him, and that was perhaps something he couldn't quite understand yet, but there was definitely no use in denying how much Frank mattered to him, no matter how little he understood it.

Mikey had of course bitched to him about this all, because Mikey, of course, still found himself stuck in the belief that Frank was actually the worst person to set foot on planet Earth, which honestly left Gerard genuinely concerned for his mental health, because he reckoned it just wasn't natural to come to a conclusion like that about someone like Frank, or perhaps, more likely, it was that Mikey was simply jealous.

Jealous that Gerard cared a lot about Frank? Or jealous that Gerard had someone like Frank and he had someone like Pete who didn't even know that he was a vampire, but really Gerard didn't actually have Frank, so it was seriously unlikely that it was the latter. It was unlikely that it was the former too, because with Mikey, things never were under any obligation to make logical sense - if he hated someone, he hated them, and that was that: something like instinct, except that his instinct was perhaps the opposite of Ray's and tended to be wrong.

But still, Mikey was stubborn.

And there was little anyone could do about that.

And Gerard needed to calm down about Frank, but he wasn't going to, and he knew that.

However, it seemed that Frank did too, as Gerard nearly jumped out of his own fucking skin when the silence was broke with a rather too casual, "stop worrying about me."

Gerard turned to see Frank: sat up in bed, pushing his hair away from his face, and glancing across the room at Gerard, who didn't actually look overly worrisome, but maybe it was just something to do with how he couldn't stop biting his nails - who knew?

"Stop fucking giving me heart attacks." Gerard laughed a little, making his way over to Frank and sitting down on the end of the bed, looking him over with concern. "You okay?"

"I told you to stop worrying." Frank narrowed his eyes a little, "I'm fine. If I woke up because I was dying I might be sat here a little less complacently, don't you think?"

Gerard shrugged, "you might just be ruining your life to prove a point to me, you know, feeling especially stubborn or something?"

"I'm not Mikey." Frank let out a sigh, leaning back down against the mattress, "you let me have your bed, that's really sweet, you know? But stupid, it's your bed-"

"Being dead, well, undead, whatever, I don't need to sleep." Gerard finished, laughing a little, "I can, but it's like reading a book or something, it's something I can do to pass the time but it's not necessary."

"That's less sweet." Frank commented, giggling a little, "get in," he offered, pulling the covers away a little.

Gerard's eyes widened at that, and he nearly died, despite the fact that he already was. "What?" He exclaimed, stumbling over his words as he did so.

"In your bed, with me. You've got to keep me cool, haven't you?" Frank added what was indeed a valid and quite heterosexual sounding point. "And I want to talk to you, and it kind of feels like you're my dad or something sat on the end, telling me a fucking bed time story or something."

Gerard laughed at the mental image, before getting in bed with Frank, and quite honestly, it was nowhere near as insanely exciting as he'd reckoned it might be, but still it wasn't like it was overwhelmingly disappointing or anything.

"So, I feel less like your dad now?" Gerard asked, biting his lip nervously as he felt Frank move closer to him.

"Mmm..." Frank nodded, grabbing Gerard's arm and pulling it around him, "sorry," he added, almost like an afterthought, "you're just cold, and it's nice. You're also you, and that's nice."

"So basically I'm like your walking, talking icepack?" Gerard asked, raising his eyebrows at that.

"Yeah," Frank nodded, smiling, "you're also Gerard Way, pink haired, shit vegan vampire, and great friend, but yeah, you're a walking talking icepack."

"I'm not shit." Gerard retorted, scowling a little. "I'm a shit vampire, okay, but I'm not a shit vegan - I'm an excellent vegan."

"Are there any good vegans?" Frank laughed a little, grinning up at Gerard.

"Yes." Gerard stressed, trying his best to be even vaguely offended but failing spectacular in his attempt. "Me." Frank shrugged at that: seemingly unconvinced. "I'm wonderful, what the fuck are you talking about, Iero?"

"Hmm... I'm ill, so you can't take anything I say seriously, because I'm ill, so it doesn't count-"

"I think that only counts if you're so ill you can't think or function, but you're pretty alright now, aren't you? Alright enough to make bitchy comments about me at least." Gerard raised his eyebrows at that.

"I thought you were Mr Worry." Frank pouted, almost disappointed, "where did worrying constantly about me go?"

"I thought you wanted me to stop worrying." Gerard exclaimed, raising his eyebrows a little.

"I didn't mean that." Frank let out a sigh, "worry about me all you like." He smiled into Gerard's side, "okay, fuck, I just realised how narcissistic that sounds, fuck my life, but... but you... you know what I mean."

"It doesn't sound narcissistic. It's completely normal to want someone to worry about you, to care, and I do care about you, because I'm certain that you're one of the most wonderful people I have ever met." Gerard let out a sigh, leaning into Frank's side, "and that's about as sappy as I'm going to get tonight, and that's a promise."

"You can get sappy." Frank continued, his voice suddenly a great deal quieter. "Get as sappy as you want. It's making me feel better."

"It's making your ego grow." Gerard corrected him.

"Same thing," Frank shrugged a little, "what does it matter? Come on, Gerard, nurture my ego, won't you?"

"Course I will." He let out a sigh, brushing Frank's hair out of his face. "Your hair's always in your face." He sighed as if he'd given up in the world in that realisation.

Frank laughed, shaking his head, "so's yours." He reached out, pushing Gerard's hair from his face, and in the process of doing so, the two got perhaps unnecessarily close.

"Yeah, but mine's pink so like it blends into my face so it doesn't matter-" Truth be told, Gerard didn't know what the fuck he was saying; he just found himself compelled to fill an awkward silence.

"Is that what we're talking about? Whether your hair blends into your face or not?" Frank exclaimed, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"I don't know." Gerard let out a sigh, moving a little away from Frank and attempting to catch his breath.

"My hair's not naturally this colour-"

"Mine is." Gerard grinned, laughing at his own joke more than anything.

"You wish." Frank let out a sigh, "my parents never wanted to let me dye it when I was younger so one day I just fucking did it myself and I came home, I was about thirteen, I think, and my mum was like what the ever-loving fuck have you done? Except she didn't say exactly that, because, you know, I was thirteen and she was still getting pissed off at me for saying crap at that age, which totally sucked, because I'd say I was a mature thirteen year old. Well, mature enough to dye my own hair without accidentally burning my eyes out or making my hair all fall out or something like that. I didn't do the allergy test, though."

"God, Frank, you could have died. I'm getting worried now." Gerard exclaimed, tucking his hair behind his ears and meeting Frank's gaze. "I didn't do the allergy test either, but it's not like there was that much of a serious health risk for me, you know, considering that I'm dead."

"You know you don't mention that enough." Frank added, causing Gerard to roll his eyes.

"Well you do seem to forget every five seconds, you know?" Gerard added, smiling a little. "Granted, I do forget that you're trans a lot. I hope that isn't offensive, I didn't mean it to be-"

"It's fine." Frank stressed, letting out a sigh. "Do you think there's like some fucking magic witch spell to make me just grow a cock, like growus penis or some shit-"

"Growus penis." Gerard repeated him, his eyes widening in disbelief, "you really are special, aren't you, Frank?"

"Mmm..." Frank nodded. "I'm just wondering, though, cause apparently since I'm so fucking powerful and shit... I mean, that's the only thing I want, to fucking transition and still have a bank account, like you won't believe how much that shit costs."

"You shouldn't have to fucking pay for that." Gerard sighed, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Welcome to America, gotta love capitalism." Frank laughed a little, but bit his lip, leaning into Gerard's side again, "I could ask Lindsey, couldn't I? Might be a bit awkward, though, does she even know that I don't have a dick in the first place?"

Gerard thought for a moment before responding. "Don't think so. But then again, it's Lindsey, I wouldn't be surprise if she just managed to read it off you, she could probably tell you what you had for lunch last Tuesday, but it's not even that magical, I think she's just clever and has a good memory, and fuck, for me, that'd be all the magic I'd fucking need."

Frank laughed a little, "all the magic I want, really. I kind of just... it sounds kind of weird, but this whole magic thing was definitely not worth all the hassle."

"Ray will sort it out, though, and you'll be okay, and Lindsey will teach you how to do magic properly, and then, then it will just be cool, and I'll totally get you to use magic to fetch my things from across the room for literally the rest of your life." Gerard insisted, smirking a little.

"And when I die?" Frank let out an awkward sigh, "you gonna go find someone else to fetch you stuff for the next eighty years as you continue to be immortal."

"As much as I'd like to live forever, I think it'd get boring." Gerard admitted, catching Frank by surprise with that one. "I think I'd maybe live out a normal life span, maybe a hundred years or something, we'll see what happens, then I'd probably stake myself or something. I think Mikey'd get real pissed at me for it - Mikey would want to live forever, honestly he'd just want to know everything, I don't think he could handle the concept of not existing simply for the fact that things would continue to happen without his knowledge. If he wasn't a vampire I think he'd have an existential crisis at least once a day, so you know, it's pretty good that he is."

"So you'd kill yourself?" Frank exclaimed, shaking his head, "don't ever do that."

"What fun would it be? When all my friends are dead? When you're dead, and god imagine how much more fucked up our planet's going to be in a hundred years. There are somethings I just don't want to live to see."

"Still..." Frank trailed off, "I just don't like the idea of it."

"Don't think about it?" Gerard suggested.

Frank shook his head, "there's more to it than that."

And there was, and that something lay in just how Frank's heart rate increased whenever he made eye contact with Gerard.

-

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