Behold! Mushy romance and sexual tension that leads to kind of risky behavior! 

"And now I tell you openly, you have my heart so don't hurt me. You're what I couldn't find." 

— 'Dreams', The Cranberries. 1756

The flush of sunset preserved through the collecting clouds and illuminated the skies in a blend of tangerine and lilac. The gloom of the faint rain beginning to trickle from the sky made it seem as though the heavens parted and the rivers from above split down the center to spill onto the earth below. Frank smelled the sharpness of pine needles doused in rainwater as he cracked open the window and allotted his hand to slip out, pelted in the coolness of heavy water droplets soon becoming too glacial to withstand for long. He returned his hand to his lap, his dry hand rubbing out the angry flush of a practically frozen hand, but Frank surprisingly didn't mind. He found an allure to the rain, especially now that his stubborn yearning for home mostly settled and it had been a main thing preventing him from enjoying his surroundings. He needed to remind himself that he enjoyed the brief break from the heat back home— mostly because it let him rest from the sweat-inducing temperatures that frequented California, but it was valid enough. 

Frank reached over the middle console, seeking, until a cool hand gave him what he sought out. His fingers tangled together with Gerard's and sent a thrill down Frank's back, settling warmly in the nooks and crannies between his insides like resting in front of a fireplace to thaw after a blizzard. He never realized how empty he'd become while attempting to adjust to a new life. He found the absence of love was not what brought him to his realization, but falling in love caused him to notice his soul had craved a counterpart to help seal off the silence of solitude. Frank was never completely alone, but he was lonely in ways that weren't fulfilled, and the antidote was unknown to him. While other crevices couldn't be completely filled in an era of change, Frank found a way to reach contentment, as unconventional as it seemed to a person who never expected very much after living a mundane life. 

Frank discreetly watched Gerard from the corner of his eye, alert of his movements and his expression. Gerard was placid, present but also within his thoughts as the pad of his thumb delicately rubbed over Frank's skin. His tranquility was a beautiful sight and Frank hated knowing he'd ever faced torment of any kind, unabsolved pain he fought to suppress so it wouldn't destroy him completely. Frank knew it was a struggle for him to face his own identity on a daily basis. He'd sooner choose humanity over any sort of privilege that came with vampirism, the pros weren't nearly enough to cover up the cons. Frank's mind wandered as it often did, but he realized he didn't need to censor himself as much anymore. 

"Now you know I just about boil over with questions every time we're together." Frank said to grab Gerard's attention and continued on when he obtained it. "But— there's one thing that I haven't thought too much about, and I'm wondering if it's okay to ask you about it." 

"I think we're at a point where you can ask me pretty much anything." Gerard nodded, only a touch hesitant as he came to question how personal the question must've been if it was enough to make Frank ask for permission to bring it up. 

"I hope it's not too much to ask about regardless of that. It's sensitive for you, I bet." Frank chewed his lower lip, his teeth grazing his lip ring. "I was wondering how this happened to you. Turning into a vampire. I really hate to say it, but it doesn't seem like you had much of a choice in it." 

Gerard seemed a bit unsettled, but not angered or caught off guard by the question, as if he'd been bracing himself for its eventual turnout.  Frank was afraid of crossing boundaries, but if Gerard wasn't already backing out and explaining why he wasn't ready to share the story, he took it as a sign to patiently wait and prepare to offer his support. 

Gerard broke out of his mild discomfort in increments and soon began, letting Frank release the breath he was holding. "I didn't have a choice. If I did, immortality alone sounds awful in more ways than one. My horror runs deeper due to everything else that comes with being a vampire, not just immortality." 

"Were you attacked?" Frank asked the question softly, testing. 

Gerard winced. "I wouldn't say I was attacked. I was unconsenting, but the circumstances were something I understand now, and I don't hold it against my mother and father the way I once did." 

Stillness. Frank nearly gasped when the pulse of his heart returned and could be felt in the lower ends of his gut. "Your parents did this?" 

"My parents were changed first, a little over 200 years ago. They were found by rabid vampires while out traveling to another town for a special medicinal herb for Mikey who was very ill at the time. Sometimes, if the vampire is savage enough, they'll neglect to fully drain their prey and they'll leave them mostly dead, but alive enough for the venom in their bodies to spread. This brings on a transformation that can't be stopped." 

"Holy shit. So the vampires just— just left them there like that? No one found your parents?" 

"They'd gone off the path by mistake. Burrowed into a deep field between the hills and the woods laying beyond that. They were forced to suffer through the excruciating pain of venom breaking down their human tissue and killing their organs for their rebirth." 

Gerard paused just as he was immersing fully into the story, a flash of surprise at his own words moving over his face turning towards Frank. His forehead creased worriedly. "I'm sorry if this is brutal. Sometimes I forget to have a bit of a filter near you, I know this is definitely horrifying to hear about." 

"I don't care about a filter. I'm already here, might as well share all of the details, right?" Frank breathed. Although his stomach felt a bit strange picturing the sheer agony Gerard described, it wasn't enough to plead for a bit of censoring for his sake. He wasn't that delicate and he was eager to know more.

"If you're fine with it." Gerard gently squeezed Frank's hand, eliciting a return of the gesture. "Moving forward... I was back home tending to Mikey while my parents were out. I was growing more and more afraid by their prolonged absence. Normally, it took about a day or a little more to travel to the next town and back. Several days passed with no sign of them and not a whisper in my town to go by. Mikey was so out of it, he hardly noticed, and his sickness was also another awful worry I was forced to carry.

"It wasn't long before so much time passed that I began to accept we'd been abandoned. Not entirely— there were some kind souls living nearby that provided us with food, clothing, warmth when the winter arrived. Eventually, we were taken in by an older woman and her husband for a brief time. Mikey was given proper medicine and he gradually recovered, but some part of me wished he wouldn't so he'd stay blissfully unaware of what had happened to us. Thinking our parents left us behind was easier than thinking they were dead. Grief was too unforgiving of a pain for us to handle. We were so innocent back then, even though we were nearly adults. We didn't know how to properly process or mourn people who passed. We'd only experienced one death in the family and we were too small to understand it." 

"How long did this go on for?" 

Gerard's throat bobbed around a tight swallow, his eyes locked on the road and refusing to move from there. "A year. Time passed so slowly and yet so quickly. We refused to marry any of the young girls who pursued us despite us being past the age of marriage and decided we'd dedicate our lives to the study of medicine the way our parents had. Neither of us gave up on hoping our parents would return, but people around us had already accepted it wasn't going to happen. Until the night it did. In secret, a time that no one but me and my brother will ever know about. They returned to us out in the valley by the trees, gathering wood for a fire. They were both so eerily different. Flawless, bloodless. Cold to the touch with the strangest brightness in their eyes. I was scared at first, thinking this couldn't be them. It had to be a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. Otherwise, my parents had been abducted and these bizarre copies of them took their place. 

"I only realized it was truly them because of the way they spoke and the anguish in their eyes when they looked at us like we were all they ever wanted to see during their time away, but it hurt them to know what reuniting with their children meant. It wasn't possible for us to live as a family while Mikey and I were weak little humans. We were meant to expire sooner or later. Our parents would live forever and they couldn't stand to be close to us the same way ever again. My mother and father, too pained by the idea of watching us wilt while they stayed frozen in time or being forced to never see us again, acted out of pure selfishness and the agony in their hearts. They pretended to solace us in their arms to leave us vulnerable so they could bite us." 

Frank's stomach twisted into a heavy knot. "Fuck." 

Gerard nodded, a short chuckle passing through his nose like he would say the same if he were in Frank's position. Frank had no other words to share, he was horrified as he was eager to hear how the rest played out, how the pieces fit into the present. Such was resolved by Gerard continuation. 

"I understand their pain. Part of the reason they turned us was so we wouldn't feel the other side of the same horror. It would be indescribably harrowing to watch our parents stand still in time, drinking the blood of animals, while we wrinkled and decayed... but it would've been easier to accept than this. We never wanted this. The sheer agony of our transformation was soaked in betrayal and that made it all the more painful to endure. We were taken to another country, a place where the sunlight hid behind the clouds, a place away from humanity so we wouldn't risk slaughtering all of them the second we opened our eyes. It's— I can't even describe the rage and hurt we went through. It took us so long to forgive our parents for what they did. For Mikey, it took much longer. He took off for fifty years until he eventually returned." 

Gerard drifted. Speaking of the past made the scar ring out with a hollow pain, Frank could see it in his haunted eyes, almost making him regret asking. But Frank knew the tale would reach him some way or another and this was not a form of pain that could be soothed in any scenario. It was birthed in a time and place where Frank didn't exist. All he could do was bring Gerard's hand to his lips to softly kiss his knuckles, coaxing him back into the car with him on a day that was meant to be nothing but wonderful. Gerard looked at him with tender eyes. 

"I know your parents loved you so much, they just wanted you to be together forever, but they were wrong to make this decision for you. If they knew the pain of being a vampire, they should've never subjected you two to that." Frank tried out the way of words, but it didn't come out as gentle as he longed for it to. He wished for his words to be laced in the cure to Gerard's sadness, but they were a poor replica of perfect solace. 

Gerard, luckily, didn't seem to think so. He returned Frank's kiss by pressing a similar one to the back of his hand and laying it over his silent heart. "Love can be blindingly selfish. As much as I despise what I've become, it's like you said. They loved us and couldn't bear to lose us to the temporariness of being human. It wasn't something they dismissed either. They regretted their decision for many, many years when they saw what it had done to us. They've spend all this time trying to find ways for us to forgive them." 

"Have you?" Frank whispered. "Forgiven them?" 

Gerard slowly lowered Frank's hand so it rested on the middle console again, but he didn't release it. The locked position his jaw had been in loosened, his face softening. "Yes. I love my parents, that hasn't changed since the moment I was born. I might've questioned it many times since that one night, but it hasn't faded. Mikey feels the same. I know their intentions weren't to make us suffer."

"I'm sorry, Gerard. If there were some kind of cure for this, I'd hunt for it and give it to all of you."

"It isn't all so awful. Otherwise Mikey would've never met Kristin, we wouldn't have found Alicia, and I wouldn't have found you." Gerard turned and smiled achingly warmly, like he'd kept all the warmth Frank offered to him in his body until it braided into his cells and brought him back from the brink of becoming completely frozen inside. 

Frank returned the smile. "At least there's some good in that." 

Contemplation entered Gerard's eyes after a moment of silence. "If I were human, if I'd found some kind of antidote before we met, do you think you'd still be enchanted by me?" 

Frank was surprised by the question. No matter that, the answer came to him as naturally as breathing. "Absolutely. As long as your soul's the same, then it doesn't matter what form you come to me in." 

Gerard was utterly pleased by his answer. The permanence of his smile took over so infectiously that it caused Frank's lips to curve and stay still, a light feeling encompassing him. 

Turning his head to glance out the window, Frank paid attention to his surroundings and noted the darkness in the clouds that were slowly swelling in the sky, indicating the arrival of night. He glanced at the dashboard for the time and his eyes widened. 

"It's gonna start getting pretty dark soon. I didn't realize how long we were out there for, can you believe it's already four o'clock?" Frank was cut off by a sudden loud gurgle of his empty stomach. His hands flew over his gut to cover it, his eyes flying open as wide as they could go. "Oh god, please tell me you didn't hear that." 

Gerard laughed, his eyes flitting down to Frank's stomach. "Pardon me for not offering to grab you something to eat, I'm so used to never needing food that I forget humans are the opposite. We're almost home— let's get you inside and find you something so you won't stay hungry."

"It's not your job to remember, it's mine. I kinda suck at being human." Frank grumbled, his cheeks red as his stomach let out another complaint. Gerard chuckled at his embarrassment and it was almost enough of a reassurance to take it all away— almost. 

Frank invited Gerard inside once they arrived at his house. He guided them inside without fumbling with the key the way he normally did, which was shocking considering the way his hands always had a slight tremble when he was around Gerard, like the butterflies in his stomach swarmed roughly enough to make his entire body vibrate. He flicked on the lights as they entered the illuminate the darkness the night colored the house in, leading to Frank's discovery of a note his mother left informing him she'd taken off to a friend's house for dinner and a few drinks with a couple others from work. 

"My mom's probably not gonna be home for a while, god knows when she'll come back." Frank chuckled and set the note down. "Let's hope she doesn't get a little too happy with those free drinks on a work night." 

"You and me all alone in this house?" Gerard's voice was unexpectedly beside Frank's ear, light and teasing. "Whatever should we do about that?" 

"Mm, if I answered that honestly, you'd probably scold me." Frank turned and struggled not to be bewitched by Gerard's amused eyes as he reached up on the tips of his toes to press a swift kiss to his cheek before pivoting away. "I'm guessing leftover pizza doesn't appeal to you in any type of way?" 

"Would it be rude if I said no?" 

"It's honestly not the most mouth-watering thing in the world to me, but unfortunately that's what I'm gonna have tonight. I can't be bothered cooking anything right now, it's too much of a hassle having to prepare and clean up after." Frank sighed heavily as he approached the fridge, opening up the double doors and digging inside for the cardboard box filled with remaining slices from a previous dinner.

"I can—" Gerard began before he bit the words off bashfully, "I can try and make you something. If you'd like." 

Frank turned his head and found Gerard looking so out of place in the middle of the kitchen, making a startling contrast against the ordinary items stained in mundaneness that was nearly painful. It was what Frank imagined resting a diamond upon a mound of coal would appear like. Gerard was almost shy after letting out his offer and warmth tingled under every inch of Frank's skin. 

"You're an angel. But really, it's fine. I can afford to not spoil myself with my great cooking for one night." Frank smiled softly at him. He lugged out the pizza box and grabbed a paper plate from the pantry to slap two slices on.

"Do you enjoy making meals?" 

"I do. It kind of calms me down, plus it makes me happy to see other people enjoying something I made. If I cook just for me, then I get the satisfaction of knowing I mastered a recipe." Frank shrugged, popping his plate into the microwave. 

"I'd like to see you cook someday. Walking around the kitchen trying not to drop your utensils, humming to yourself with a smile on your face." Gerard sounded dreamy, which was impossibly absurd in Frank's mind still having trouble wrapping around the fact that his feelings were intensely reciprocated. Frank swore his blush would never disperse as long as Gerard kept existing. All it took was Gerard glancing in his direction for Frank's face to be engulfed in flames, fucking hell. It was as addictive as it was embarrassing. 

"You can watch me heat up this pizza and pour myself a glass of juice for now?" Frank had to clear his throat after sensing a mortifying squeak rising in it. 

"Perfect." 

Frank stood by the counter Gerard patiently sat at, leaning his elbows forward and curling a hand around his cheek as his foot tapped counting the seconds passing him by while his food heated. A soft sigh escaped him and his eyes flitted up to find Gerard gazing at him with a subtle smiled fixed on his mouth, a look so impenetrably tender that it struck Frank in the center of his chest pleasantly. 

"What?" Frank asked softly, reigning in a smile of his own. 

"You're lovely." Gerard's compliment spilled warmth through Frank's body that even reached the tips of his toes, as though he'd been encased in summer. 

"Lovely? My hair's probably a mess right now." Frank insecurely patted down the disarray at the back of his head and tucked strands behind his ear, noting he was in dire need of a haircut sometime soon. 

"You're beautiful in every form." Gerard went as far as to appear puzzled by Frank's response, as if it were only natural for Frank to believe in his own beauty the way he did. 

"Funny how you say I'm beautiful." Frank eyed Gerard's flawless physique and pulled another bashful look from him. "You know, I've never been called beautiful before. Cute, but that's about it. Adam compliments me jokingly so I'm not totally sure if that counts." 

"You'd be surprised by how many people find you lovely. I can read everyone's minds and most of the time when you're in focus, the first thing they notice is the way you look." 

"I— well that's flattering. At least no one thinks I'm a freak or anything like that." 

"You're fascinating. But luckily, I'm the only one who gets to know you this way." Gerard was one moment perched on the stool and the next right beside Frank, pulling him close to his chest. Frank could hardly contain his winded gasp, but he swiftly cut it off once the thrill of being pressed so close to Gerard, practically aligning their bodies if it weren't for the sliver of space existing between them as the gentlest precaution. Frank's hands, loosely curled into fists, rested on Gerard's chest as an idiotic smile spread across his face just as a pair of cool lips were pressed to the center of his forehead, lingering sweetly. Upon processing Gerard's response, Frank was reminded of a day he figured he could mention now that there was no reason for them to hold back any longer. 

"That day when you were talking about Frances and her crush on me... were you actually jealous?"

"Of course I was. It was surprising to me how naturally it came, I'd never had a reason to feel jealous in that sort of way before." Gerard held Frank's waist just a touch tighter, making Frank's breath catch as his fingers webbed down to his hips. "You seem to have unlocked plenty of foreign emotions in me. It's interesting feeling them unfold— it almost makes me wonder if I was alive at all before I met you." 

Frank's throat bobbed around a tight swallow as a swam of doves erupted in his belly. "I— I liked it." 

"Liked what?" 

"That you got jealous." Frank recognized the way his words would've been taken and automatically swept in to clarify. "I don't mean that in a bad way where I like to make you feel awful, it's just— the possessiveness. I felt like I was completely yours in that small moment. I wanted to be, so bad."

"You are now." Gerard's lips grazed Frank's temple and traveled further down to his cheek, then the crook of his jaw, pressing a soft kiss there causing all sorts of feeling to stir within Frank. Frank was overwhelmed with the urge to grasp Gerard's chin and turn his face to crash their lips together, but learning self restraint was a practice. It was more difficult than he imagined. 

"Now you need to watch out when it comes to tempting me." Frank said around a breathless chuckle. 

"Do I tempt you?" Gerard's voice swooped into a velvety croon eliciting deep shivers rising like warning tides washing up Frank's back. His lips traveled to a sensitive spot hidden underneath the point of the curve of Frank's jaw, breath fanning against his skin in a manner making his muscles tense up. Frank couldn't even think about the close proximity between razor sharp teeth and the human fragility of his sensitive flesh at his neck. 

"You know you do." Frank barely huffed out a choked breath as Gerard continuously worked his lips against the place on his neck making his knees buckle up under him warningly. His eyes barely fluttered shut when Gerard was gliding away from him with a smirk, settling back into the stool seat and leaving Frank flustered in his own kitchen. He stood there stunned for a moment, then turned to Gerard with a glare, his hand coming up to cup around his neck.

"Tease. What am I gonna do with you?" Frank mumbled, rubbing over the skin left with a relentless tingle. 

"Enjoy my wonderful presence you're enamored by." Gerard smiled innocently, leaning forward on the counter. 

"Enamored I am." Frank rolled his eyes. He retrieved his food from the microwave— which went off without him noticing during Gerard's little show— and sat down beside him. 

He decided if Gerard could be bold, then so could he. "Do you wanna stay tonight?" 

Gerard's eyebrows lifted high. "Stay? Do you think your mother would allow that?" 

"Well— no. Obviously not, she knows how I feel about you. But you're a vampire, you'd be better at keeping yourself hidden than a human would be. I can keep you upstairs and you'll be on the lookout for my mom just in case." Frank enjoyed the thrill of hiding away. He concealed it, but he didn't know if he was all that well at it as he fiddled with his lip ring. 

"I suppose I can. I'd like to stay, if you'll have me." Gerard was strangely flattered as if it were some reward to be allowed to stay over at Frank's house. Perhaps to him it was— and it endeared Frank to no end. 

"You'd never leave my side if it were up to me. But we can't have it all, right?" Frank chuckled with delight. He picked up his pizza and took a bite. 

The two of them broke off into a momentary silence as Frank ate. Gerard politely chose not to stare, however his eyes continued to drift back to him, unable to help himself. Frank tried to stay focused on his food or else he'd completely abandon it and do something stupid like plop himself into Gerard's lap. 

"Do you think you'll tell your mother about us?" Gerard asked suddenly. Frank nearly choked on his bite and waited to swallow it down before he spoke. 

"God. What would I even say?" Frank's eyes widened. "'Mom, this is my boyfriend, Gerard.' It sounds weird." 

"I think that's adorable." Gerard beamed and Frank melted a bit, backing off his latter statement and opting to explain. 

"Yeah, but 'boyfriend' just... it doesn't really fit. But I can't tell her 'hey, he's the love of my life by the way' without freaking her out." 

Gerard went still. His gaze drifted to the counter in a surprised fixation, even his habitual breathing pattern halted so the only noise in the entire house was the ticking of the clock on the wall and the subtle hum coming from the utilities. Frank's chest seized with a wave of anxiousness as he realized the strength of his statement; he needed to control his tongue better and not allow his mind to run wild. 

"What's wrong?" Frank asked just to be certain of the reason behind Gerard's stillness. 

Gerard drifted back when he heard Frank's voice calling out to him. Blinking profusely, a strange smile nervously appeared on his face, a chuckle breathily escaping him that matched with the unsteady newness of the sweetness suddenly overtaking his aura. "Pardon me for spacing. I just— I very much enjoyed hearing you say that." 

Frank's impending humiliation broke away in a thousand pieces flaking away into nonexistence. He shakily released a small breath trapped between his lungs and it made room for a small relieved laugh to squeeze out of him. Heart palpitations ensued that Gerard certainly listened to, an instinct he would develop as long as Frank was so human in comparison to him, but Frank was no longer ashamed or insecure about his bodily reactions; if Gerard adored them, there was nothing to feel sourly about. Frank allowed his heart and breath to flutter in reaction to Gerard, slowly resuming his meal, but not before he reached under the table to rest a shy hand over Gerard's knee. 

After dinner, Frank guided Gerard up to his bedroom. Thankfully it wasn't in a full disarray the way he feared it would be, apart from a few scattered clothing items and empty water bottles sitting around the surfaces, but those were cleared away so quickly that Frank was breathless and red by the time he finished. He straightened out his blankets on his bed and fluffed his pillows, and it was then that it dawned on him. 

"Oh," Frank squeaked, "You're staying the night." 

"Yes?" Gerard answered confusedly from across the room where he politely stood, silently observing before Frank said something. 

"You— are you, uh," Frank pulled away from the pillows and couldn't even meet Gerard's eyes. "Are you fine with sleeping in the same bed? Wait, no, you don't— you don't sleep, sorry, I don't really know how else to put it." Nervous laughter shook out unattractively. Fuck, he was a mess. 

"Are you fine with having me in your bed?" A crease formed between Gerard's sculpted eyebrows. Frank almost snorted— oh, he was certainly okay with having Gerard in his bed for other reasons, if they were applicable to them in another universe, but their night would exclusively involve sleeping and Gerard counting the hours until Frank awoke. 

"I'm fine with it. I just, I hope I don't snore really loud or kick you in my sleep on accident. Won't you get really bored waiting for me to wake up?" Frank managed to say once he shook inappropriate thoughts out of his head, grateful more than ever that Gerard was incapable of reading his mind. 

"Perhaps I'll pass the time by reading one of your books." Gerard wrung his wrists behind his back as he carefully approached Frank's desk, eyeing the bookmarked copy of Haunting of Hill House he'd gifted to Frank. "You started the book I gave you." 

"I've been having a hard time pacing myself. I fucking love it." Frank watched as Gerard picked up the book and was reminded of what else laid inside. "Not as much as I love the note you left in it." 

Gerard smiled, emitting sunshine that soothed tense places in Frank he hadn't known existed until they stiffness diminished. "I was hoping you'd appreciate it. Admittedly, I was risking it writing something so personal. I wondered if you would read into the emotion behind my words and find out about my feelings." 

Frank's heart gave a pleasant squeeze. "I didn't catch it until the night after we— after we said a few things to each other. When I found out about almost everything." 

Gerard gently laid the book back into its designated place, almost nostalgic as he remembered. "It doesn't matter if you discovered it late. The sentiment behind it won't ever fade." 

Frank, suddenly dizzy on his feet when his eyes locked with Gerard, struggled to bring the flow of blood back to his brain long enough to communicate properly. He stammered for a second much to Gerard's enjoyment and slapped a hand over his forehead, sighing heavily. 

"I'm gonna take a rinse. Um. Don't go anywhere, please?" Frank raised his eyebrows. 

Gerard's smile widened into a grin. He passed Frank to sink onto the bed, laying himself out on the mattress and folding his hands on top of his stomach as he propped onto the pillows. "I don't have anywhere else I'd rather be." 

"You're sappier than I ever imagined you might be." Frank jested. Being equally as sappy, Frank swayed in place for a number of seconds before he bent down to quickly kiss Gerard's forehead before he sprinted off to the bathroom to finally catch his breath for the first time all day. 

Frank was already ridiculously spotless from his intense scrub-down in the morning, so he only laid under the spray of warm water to rinse off the residue from the day, the highs and lows swirling around the drain. He pressed a hand against his thumping heart and shut his eyes so he was encased in darkness for a moment, processing. The more he leafed through pivotal moments he lived through in a matter of hours, he felt the quickening of his heart, the strength of it thrashing about underneath his hand. He felt made of stardust as his skin tingled in fine fibers of warmth severing his gravity for him to drift in the eternity of blissful space. Frank couldn't remember the last time he felt so free of troubles, but they melted from his shoulders and disintegrated in rivers of water sprinkling his body. His fingertips touched his lips having yet to cease flushing from the number of kisses he received and he tasted the sweetness of Gerard beyond his tongue as though he were a permanent fixation to be enchanted by. 

As ordinary as Frank was, he was something awe-inspiring enough to earn him the affections of someone extraordinary. Frank looked down at his skin and examined his freckles, the mole on his left arm placed in the exact same area as one his mother had, the thin hairs dotting across his body and the places where he was smooth. He didn't glisten in the sunlight, only darkened or burned in the kind grin of heated weather, and something about it fascinated him now that he had something to compare it all to. It was possible he was something beautiful for sore eyes to see. It was difficult balancing a strange near-epiphany when another part of him doubted himself constantly. Frank had never been so confident, it was a habit to break that many couldn't get past, but maybe he could someday. It was incredible how all it took was one person's fascination to become aware of the exoticness within ones flesh.

Frank stepped out of the shower and hastily scrubbed at his teeth with his toothbrush. He looked at his face in the mirror, examining tiny flaws and accepting they couldn't exactly be picked away at will. His cheeks were red, eyes sparkling and lips pink beneath his tracing fingers. He thought about Gerard resting in his bed and the redness in his face flooded further out on instinct. Frank hated this awkward age where he was so hormonal that something as innocent as that had his thoughts instantly directing to other things. Frank recalled the way Gerard's lips had felt at his neck in the kitchen earlier and a shaky breath fell from his lips, his hand curling tight around the sink. It seemed Gerard wouldn't be the only one of them fighting off temptation. Had it not been for the risk of quite literally getting himself killed, Frank would most definitely burst out of the restroom and take advantage of having the house to themselves so he could lay Gerard out on the mattress and— 

"Holy fuck," Frank hissed at his own reflection. "Stop that." 

Frank managed to pull himself together after taking a few deep breaths. Exiting the restroom, he ran a towel over his wet hair and left it to dry on the back of his desk chair. Gerard was strewn out on the bed and engrossed in one of Frank's books on vampire lore, which made his body functions stop minutely. 

"More than half of this is surprisingly accurate." Gerard noted, sounding intrigued. "The other half is irresponsible misinformation. We don't have magic healing properties in our blood because it isn't our own, though that would be amazing. We run off the blood we consume." 

"Oh. You weren't supposed to see that." Frank dragged a hand down the side of his face. "I bought that before, you know. Before I knew anything for sure." 

Gerard's eyes darted up to meet Frank's, bright and knowing. "I caught a glimpse of the cover when you were carrying your shopping bag around. No need to be embarrassed, it was like getting to the bottom of a mystery case." 

"That's exactly what it was like." Frank perched himself carefully on the side of the bed, fiddling with the string ties of his worn pajama pants. He was suddenly conscious of every loose thread and the way the collar of his oversized pajama shirt was stretched out, the rest a sea of fabric devouring his body. Gerard most likely wouldn't care for his apparel, but Frank regretted not digging for something that wasn't so... ratty. 

Gerard gently shut the book and stretched out to rest it on top of the pile sitting beside the bed, kept tidy from continuous touching and handling. He settled back against the pillows and smiled disarmingly at Frank. 

"What are you doing over there?" Gerard eyed the wide gap between them. 

Frank resisted smiling back, failing terribly. He chuckled sheepishly and wrapped the string to his pants around his index finger until the tip was lavender with a loss of circulation. Suddenly, cool hands were grabbing at his waist, hauling him over him he was flush at Gerard's side. Gerard turned them over onto their sides just before Frank could gasp at the new position, his eyes large and his legs flailing. 

"That's much better." Gerard breathed, lips stretching over his teeth in a grin. His hand rested in the crook of Frank's waist as he tangled their legs together and moved his head closer for their faces to loom closely, stealing Frank's breath. 

"Am I gonna have to get used to you manhandling me?" Frank said as a partial joke, but some of it was genuine. 

"I'll only do it when you're being silly, just like you were a second ago." Gerard's hand lifted to brush against Frank's rosy cheek. "I can handle closeness like this now. Unless I state otherwise, don't be so shy around me." 

It wasn't necessarily shyness— or was it, and Frank was incredibly unused to it? He'd always been a smidge shy, he supposed, but it wasn't bad enough to become one of his most well known qualities. Frank yielded to Gerard's advice after he found truth in it, sensing the calmness emitting from Gerard, and he nestled in closer, his eyes falling shut as his forehead rested against Gerard's. Gerard chuckled softly and continued stroking his cheek, reveling in the silence for a moment. 

"Do you ever read or watch movies about vampires just to see what other people's ideas of them are like?" Frank asked as his mind traced back to the book he caught Gerard reading. 

"I haven't seen a vampire film or read a vampire book ever since an adaptation of Dracula was released in 1992. The extreme romanticization of our kind has always irked me a bit." 

Frank could easily understand the reasons and chose not to ask. "How about your siblings?" 

Gerard snorted lightly. "Kristin loves vampire media. She was a huge Vampire Diaries fanatic when it was airing." 

"Seriously?" Frank pulled back as a laugh shook through him. 

"Kristin is heavily invested in those types of shows, ironically. She's into pop culture much more than the rest of us. She's forced my brother to watch countless romantic comedies with her over the years." 

"I think that's nice. Just because you have so much time ahead of you doesn't mean you should completely fall out of touch with the now." Frank's fingertips traced Gerard's forearm in slow strokes bringing a content flutter to his slowly blinking eyes. "Vampire media really has changed a lot since the last time you've seen it, though. I don't think anyone finds vampires scary anymore. In that context." 

Gerard hummed softly. "You mentioned people have 'the hots' for vampires these days?" 

Frank ducked his head. "I can't believe I said that." 

Gerard dipped his hand under Frank's chin to tilt his face up, a smile situated on his perfect mouth and his eyes alive like a set of forest wildfires blazing in double. "I assumed you were grouped within this circle of people you mentioned." 

Squirming, Frank's heart rose into his throat, hammering irregularly. "Not all vampires..." 

Gerard's thumb exhilaratingly swept across Frank's lower lip, pressing down on the tender skin. Something like desire ignited in Gerard's endless warmth, creating heat, and Frank willed himself not to suck in a choppy breath. Before Frank could fully come to terms with the idiotic temptation to part his lips and invite Gerard's thumb past them, Gerard's focus fell away from him, staring off as he listened for something in the distance that wouldn't yet reach Frank's ears. 

"Your mother's around the corner." Gerard informed, pulling his hand away. 

Sparks of alarm rang through Frank's body. Suddenly remembering about life outside of the comfortable bubble him and Gerard were wrapped up in in the haven of his bedroom, Frank sprung off his bed and flailed. 

"Don't make a sound when she gets here!" Frank exclaimed. "Actually, is it smart to hide you in my closet or something? I don't—" 

"Don't be so skittish, Frank. I'm better at hiding than you think." Gerard winked while draped on Frank's bed, then suddenly, he vanished into thin air. Frank was startled by his unannounced disappearance, whipping around and searching for any sign of him, but finding none. As the sound of his mother pulling into the driveway made his heart spike, he disregarded Gerard's hiding expertise and rushed down the stairs to pretend he'd been watching television instead of lounging around in his room with his boyfriend. 

Linda entered quietly, but soon became comfortable making noises while settling in as she realized Frank hadn't gone to sleep yet. She appeared tired, but relaxed for the most part, tension absent from her shoulders and indicating she had a pleasant time. Frank suspected she needed it more than she would ever let on. 

"Hey mom," Frank looked over his shoulder and tried to put on a casual facade. "How was it?" 

"Hi Frankie. It was nice, we all had a few good laughs and some wine. I made a new friend, her name is Cathy, she's my co-worker's sister." Linda padded into the living room and plopped down on the loveseat, heaving out a sigh as she tugged her hair free from a slicked back ponytail. 

"I'm glad you had a good time. And that you didn't go too crazy with the wine." Frank chuckled far more breathlessly than he intended, but he covered up the sound with a small cough. 

"How was your date?" Linda grinned knowingly, bringing an intense red vibrance to Frank's face. 

"It wasn't really a date, but— but it was great." Frank fidgeted with a loose thread falling away from the bottom of his shirt, hoping he wasn't being too obvious with his brevity, but his luck had never been so kind to him in the past. 

"That's it?" Linda's eyebrows raised high to show her disappointment. "I expected you to come home with a new boyfriend." 

Frank blanched. As much as he adored his mother and fully intended to share the new developments in his life with her soon, that night was too soon, leaving him little to no time to prepare. Frank unintelligently stammered a butchered combination of words until he pinched his mouth shut and tried not to scream out of frustration with himself. 

"We're barely getting there, mom, it's gonna take at least one more date— I mean outing." Frank corrected himself, but not before his mother's disappointment faded into a knowing smile. 

"I'll be waiting for it. We can celebrate the day it happens." Linda chuckled. 

Frank was sure she would stay true to her words, even if he preferred she wouldn't, but he couldn't deny how much her unlimited support meant. 

Frank lingered for about fifteen more minutes, quietly watching the television without focusing on the show as his racing mind kept darting back to Gerard who patiently waited for his return somewhere upstairs. He figured enough time passed and stood up, stretching and forcing a yawn to the front for show. 

"I think I'm gonna head to bed. I'm super tired from today, feels like I haven't slept in ages." Frank supposed he didn't need to add the ending if it wasn't obvious he was exhausted— he wasn't, at all. 

"Okay Frankie. I'm probably gonna go to bed, too, we both had a long day." Linda stood up, turning off the television. She turned back to Frank and observed him long enough for suspicion to enter her eyes. "Why do you look so hyper?" 

Frank flinched internally and scrambled to make up a possible excuse that went surprisingly smoothly. "I just had a really great day, I guess. I swear I'm way more tired than I look, I'll probably knock out within the first few minutes of having my eyes closed." 

"Any reason why today was so great?" Linda's suspicions dispersed and her curiosity overcame it. 

"I just. Uh." Frank looked down at his feet. "I like him. That's obvious, isn't it?" 

"Very much. Alright, well I don't wanna keep you up. Have a nice night. Just don't stay up texting him or anything like that, okay?" Linda warned.  

"Believe me, he's probably more exhausted than I am after doing all that driving. Night, mom." Frank finalized, letting out a quiet breath of relief, and scampered up the stairs to his room. 

Frank waited facing his tightly shut door for his mother to enter her own bedroom and click the door lock, indicating she was settled in for good. The light under the door vanished, replaced by pitch, and Frank sagged against the door now that he could finally rest. 

Frank turned around, about to whisper out to Gerard that he could come out of hiding, but he was startled speechless by Gerard standing behind him expectantly. He slapped a hand over his mouth to cover his yelp, freezing still to make sure Linda hadn't heard him. Silence answered his searching ears. 

"I almost blew our cover!" Frank hissed in a whisper. 

Gerard grinned sheepishly. "Remind me to stop accidentally scaring you half to death." 

"You're forgiven. Just this once." Frank let out the tension in his body through a deep exhale, pushing himself away from the door. "You weren't lying when you said you're good at hiding. Do you have the power to turn invisible, too?" 

Gerard laughed quietly. "I'm fast enough to make it seem so, but no. I can't turn myself invisible. I hid in your bathroom." He looked up at Gerard who suddenly seemed so eager to be in his presence in the place where he resided the most apart from school. Frank's fluttering heart would grow weak from the amount intensity at which it pounded the past handful of months he'd known the vampire. 

Frank hit the light switch beside them, bathing the room in darkness his eyes slowly accustomed to. He became familiar with the outline of Gerard's body and his features illuminated by moonlight peeking out behind a web of clouds, crosscuts of shadows from the tree branches outside bathing Gerard's form. Frank reached out for him, reaching onto the tips of his toes to press his face into his shoulder and resting his hand on his chest. 

"She expected us to start dating." Frank mumbled as he grew intoxicated by the sweet scent and its familiar permanence. "It's a little funny how she just knew." 

"She likes the idea of you having someone like that in your life." Gerard whispered it softly beside Frank's ear as he enveloped him in his arms, stroking over his halfway dry hair. "She knows there's a certain type of loneliness that takes a special person to cure it." 

"I wasn't lonely. But then I was because I started missing you so soon after I met you." Frank followed as he was lead to the bed, refusing to release his hold on Gerard. They collapsed together on the mattress, rearranging their limbs and keeping pressed together so their breaths collided between them, proximity near enough for it to stir up a tropical storm within Frank's stomach. 

"You're never going to feel that way again, little dove." Gerard's hands cupped around Frank's face delicately. Frank's chest seized from a surge of uncontrollable longing. 

"Kiss me. Please." Frank whispered daringly into the night, a plea heard by the moonlight that beared witness to the secrecy of their quiet intimacy burrowed in blankets and hushed words. 

Gerard was careful, as always, keeping Frank's face between his ginger hands handling him like a precious artifact. His lips were a smidgen less hesitant as they touched Frank's for the third time that day now that he knew how it felt to kiss Frank, how to maneuver his self control and suppress his instincts raging just below his desire. Frank was not as used to their kisses and supposed he'd never adjust as long as a thrill passed under his skin like a bolt of physical heat snaking around him, tingling in the very tips of his fingers and toes. The coolness of Gerard's lips invited his warmth to sink into his soft skin, yielding to Frank's mouth longingly pressing harder, but never roughly. Frank's breath came out in vibrating trembles pushing out of his throat each time their lips disconnected for the briefest second before closing in again, softening and finding a rhythm, and soon coaxing the hesitant parting of their mouths. 

The taste of Gerard when their tongues touched accidentally was as honeyed as the perfume exuding from his skin. It was the wine of all things saccharine, completely foreign and uniquely his own, and Frank suspected he'd soon learn to crave for it. His head span as his tongue slipped between their parted lips purposely. A twitch of worry itched the crown of his head that Gerard would yank away from him, but instead of breaking apart, Gerard made a small noise that Frank could describe as crumpled velvet or the slow trickle of molasses, sending a spark of excitement through Frank. Gerard's tongue skated across Frank's as he pressed him close enough for their bodies to align, hands gripping Frank's waist. He tested his personal limits, but soon, he was exploring Frank's mouth and pulling a terribly desperate whine from Frank. 

They kissed and kissed until Frank felt his pulse in his lips moving eagerly against Gerard's, building so they were gasping softly against each other and heat was pooling in a place below Frank's waist. Frank whimpered, fisting Gerard's hair as he was turned onto his back and Gerard hovered over him, kissing him with a blistering passion scalding him in each place they touched. 

Gerard's hand dug into Frank's hip, wandering down to his thigh coming up to bracket around Gerard's waist. It took all of Frank's might not to rock his hips up in search of something to alleviate the growing pressure in his body. Gerard's fingers dug in, tighter and tighter, until the sobering ache of pain rippled through Frank's leg. The sting of fangs grazed Frank's lip and almost broke through the skin. 

Frank made a panicked noise, tearing his mouth away. "Gerard, you're hurting me."  

In an instant, Gerard stiffened into a statue-like form. One moment, he was frozen in place, and the next, he'd suddenly torn himself away from Frank to stand at the other side of the room in a wide-eyed mess. Frank gasped at the sudden loss, but sat up so quickly that his head spun from the rush of blood. He met Gerard's horrified gaze watching him and instantly, something close to fear circled above him. 

"Fuck, I'm so sorry." Gerard rasped, both in shock and torment as he addressed his mistake. "I shouldn't have— I need to be more careful. I can't lose control this way around you, it's dangerous." 

"Gerard," Frank shook his head after fighting to gain his breath back, hating how his human brain seemed much slower to processing things than Gerard's, "It's okay. I know you didn't mean it, we just got carried away—" 

"I shouldn't allow that to happen, Frank." Gerard squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head to the side. Icicles impaled the new sweetness of his aura and encircled him, warding off anyone who dared come near him. Frank sought to melt them into nothing but a sore reminder that would evaporate by the morning. 

Frank's heart skipped a beat. "I know. But we both got ahead of ourselves and— please, don't beat yourself up for it. Because I know you will, but I'm asking you not to. Please." 

Gerard's horrified expression broke apart into one that was pained by the pleading tone of Frank's voice, resisting the urge to give into the part of himself that wouldn't ever forgive the faintest moment of losing it. Frank admittedly lost some of his own control as well, giving into the feeling instead of keeping an imperative reminder of caution in his head. But he couldn't sink into his shame after a day as perfect as the one he shared with Gerard. They owed it to themselves to allow just a single day in time where they weren't ridden with any deep insecurity involving the flaws of their togetherness. Flaws, what a pitiful name for it when the spaces between Frank's fingers being filled by Gerard's felt like two halves of the world clicking together to resume a peaceful orbit.

"Please." Frank said again, his volume almost too loud and risking discovery, so he forced his tight throat to loosen some as he shakily breathed out and lowered his voice. "Come back. I need you here with me right now. Close, not from across the room." 

Frank's beseeching slowly brought Gerard back down to the earth where Frank awaited him. Although his reluctance to return showed at first, doused in the bitter liquor of his lack of faith in his own control, Gerard cleared it all away. Parting the icicles from himself, their frostbite still tainted the edges of the blades of grass in his meadow, but he willed his body to move. 

When he returned to Frank, the fear in his eyes was palpable, so Frank reached out as soon as he settled onto the mattress again. Frank gently stroked his cheek in a soothing sweep and quietly shushed his hurricane of troubled thoughts that didn't need to be spoken aloud for Frank to hear them. Frank carded through the soft strands of Gerard's hair until the tension gradually bled away from him, gravitating closer in centimeters at a time, until Frank's eyes fluttered shut as he carefully leaned forward to rest his head on Gerard's chest. Frank needed Gerard to know he had no resentment towards his mistakes and Gerard shouldn't hold himself accountable for things he didn't have control over. 

Through the silent hour, Gerard sank into the bed, growing less and less rigid by the moment. He allowed himself the tender gestures he gave before such as running his fingers through Frank's hair, pressing occasional kisses against the top of his head and keeping himself there as if Frank's scent came as a wonder to him as well, the scent of his shampoo combined with his natural essence. Frank kept his eyes closed and focused on Gerard's solidity beneath him in hopes of it never fading away like a dream too ineffable to be true. 

Tiredness seeped into him he battled for a long time until he couldn't anymore and he found himself falling, succumbing to the dark of sleep, but not before Gerard whispered to him, "Tell me what you saw in your sleep when you wake up. If I could dream of anything, I'd dream of you." 

___

I have to admit, as sweet as this chapter was, I had a really fun time making Frank fight for his life against horny thoughts, LMAO, oops. To be honest both of them are fighting the same battle it's just not as clear in Gerard since this is in Frank's perspective. 

Let me know your thoughts and everything, I love to hear your feedback, it brings me so much joy. Also just letting you know we're getting really close to the main action in this story, so head's up! It's gonna be wild. 

-rosexo