*above picture is of Frank and Gerard being cute af*

"You don't know how happy it makes me when I come home to find you here," Frank grinned up at Gerard as he took a bag of groceries from Frank's overburdened arms, quickly placing it onto the counter before Frank dropped them all over the tile flooring again.

"I've been living with you for almost a month Frank, I'm not going anywhere," Gerard teased as he located the eggs, storing them in the fridge so Frank wouldn't have a chance to get his hands on them, the poor things always ended up broken somehow if Frank so much as touched them.

"I know," Frank scoffed, "but it still makes me happy."

"Good, I always want to make you happy." Gerard chuckled to himself at the corny content of his comment, but Gerard had come to accept that he was one cheesy motherfucker, and Frank seemed to enjoy his clichéd lines at least.

"Oh wow - did you finish the last one?" Frank exclaimed, the remaining grocery bag he had been holding falling to the floor with a soft thump as Frank spun around, causing Gerard to wince over the fate of whatever food had been in it.

But when he followed Frank's gaze to the other side of the room, all thoughts of smashed groceries were forgotten, because Frank had noticed Gerard's most recent painting, his final piece in the set that was focused entirely on Frank's original songs. He had eventually caved and shown Frank the first few once he had completed them, and Frank had begun hanging them up in his apartment as soon as he found out what they meant and that they were intended for him.

But it wasn't just Frank's apartment now - it was Frank's and Gerard's; Frank had finally asked Gerard to move in with him about four months into their relationship, and Gerard didn't even have to think twice about his answer. He and Frank were always spending time at one or the other of their places anyway, so paying two sets of rent was really just a waste of money, not to mention Gerard had been dying to ask Frank that very same question for ages, but as always, Frank had beaten him to it.

But Frank hadn't seem to expect Gerard to say yes, so he had a whole speech lined up, which Gerard had listened to patiently when he realized there was no way he could get a word in edgewise, Frank kept talking over him whenever he tried to vocalize anything, but when Frank had mentioned that Gerard would be able to quit his job at Cartoon Network if he wanted, because Frank made more than enough to cover the rent, which would leave Gerard free to focus on painting, or whatever he wanted to do, his ears had perked up instantly, and Gerard had to resist the urge to call his boss right then and there to give him his resignation over the phone.

"Really Frank - you wouldn't mind, and I swear - I will get another job if my art doesn't sell, I would never mooch off of you," Gerard exclaimed happily, finally managing to cut Frank off, two of his fingers pinching the fleshy skin next to his thumb to make sure that this wasn't some vivid dream, even though life with Frank was sort of like existing in a fantasy in many ways.

"Don't worry about it Gerard, I know how much you hate that job, and I just want you to do something you love okay - money doesn't matter to me."

Frank was right about Gerard's current situation, because Gerard had escalated from low-key disliking his job to full on despising it in the past few months, any hopes of being promoted had been crushed out of him, his boss barely even looked his way anymore, and Gerard had given up entirely on ever introducing his ideas to a larger audience; before today, he had been resigned to working a boring desk job until he died - or snapped, but now he had another chance to follow his original plan of making art for a living, and it was all because of Frank.

"Okay - yeah, I'm going to quit," Gerard smiled broadly, the happy expression almost hurting his face as he beamed up at Frank adoringly.

"So does that mean you will move in with me too?" Frank had prodded gently, his feet scuffing against the carpeted floor in a nervous gesture that almost had Gerard laughing out loud.

"Of course you dumb fuck, as if I would ever say no to that offer."

Living with Frank had been even better than Gerard had imagined; he had assumed that nothing much would change since they were together almost twenty-four seven anyway, but it had, in the best way possible. There was just something incredibly heartwarming about sharing a home with Frank, and Gerard knew he would never get tired of waking up with Frank's sleep tousled head nestled against his chest in the bed they now shared together every night.

Frank had even cleaned out his old office that he never used so Gerard could set up an art studio within it, and Gerard found himself more inspired than he had been in years, he almost couldn't keep up with the images inside his head, and much to his surprise, his paintings were selling - not all of them, and not for large amounts of money, but the funds he received for them was more than enough to help cover his half of the rent.

Gerard also continued to perform with Frank occasionally, especially when he went through a stretch where no one seemed to want his paintings, because despite Frank's protests, Gerard wanted to contribute monetarily, and his initial anxiety at being on stage ebbed every time he forced himself up onto the wooden platform, he even found himself missing the colorful dresses and loud applause when he went for long periods of time without singing at the club.

"Yeah I did - just last night actually," Gerard grinned proudly as Frank ogled his newest masterpiece. "You can move it if you want, I just put it in here since the living room is getting pretty full."

"It's perfect Gerard," Frank whispered, finally tearing his eyes away from the painting so he could face Gerard once more. "You are perfect."

And really - everything was perfect, at least for Gerard, because here he was, living with his boyfriend who he loved with all of his heart, making money doing something he truly enjoyed, with his anxiety and self-hatred basically a thing of the past, and Gerard could never express that to Frank in words, but he didn't have to, because Frank already knew exactly what he was trying to say.

"I love you," Gerard murmured, his hands capturing the sides of Frank's face so he could pull him in for a gentle kiss.

"Do you love me enough to unload the rest of the groceries? I printed off some more photos that I want to add to our collage."

"I don't know...that's a pretty high level of love there," Gerard teased.

"Please?" Frank pleaded, his bottom lip sticking out in that way that should have make him look ridiculous, but it somehow didn't, if anything, Gerard found it insanely attractive.

"Yes you dork, but calm down with your photo wall, it's going to take over the whole room any day now." Gerard forced his face into an expression of false irritation, but Frank wasn't even looking at him anymore now that he had received the answer he wanted to hear.

"Well maybe I want your face all over our room," Frank retorted playful as he dug through one of the discarded bags, emerging with a stuffed envelope clasped in his tattooed hands.

"Oh - the real thing isn't good enough?"

"It is, but you can never have too much of a good thing," Frank grinned, kissing Gerard quickly on the lips before sprinting off toward their bedroom as if Gerard was going to try and stop him from plastering any more prints onto the already crowded wall space.

Gerard chuckled to himself as he began separating the refrigerated items out of the paper bags, a wide grin splitting his face in two as Frank began singing, his voice resonating down the short hallway, the tone only slightly muffled by the time it reached Gerard's ears. Gerard's heart swelled as he began bobbing his head to the tune, and he hurried to put away the rest of the food so he could join his boyfriend in the bedroom - their bedroom, and maybe they could put on a private performance for their eyes only.

Well this is it guys, This Is Our Second Skin is officially finished.

I am laughing at myself right now, I mean, this turned into a 25 chapter fic when it was originally supposed to be a smutty one-shot.

You all have dangergays to thank for that, and I owe her a huge thank you for this amazing prompt that spun into a story of its own, not to mention she helped by giving me quite a bit by giving me information on drag queens, because I was clueless about them before I started this.

But seriously, I want to thank everyone who read, voted, and commented on this story. It did so much better than I expected. It already has 21.5k reads and over 2k votes, and I haven't even published the last two parts yet.

I have so many more things I could say, and a whole shitload of people I want to personally thank for their constant support, but I have to be at work in five hours, so I really need to get some sleep.

Hopefully I will see you guys around in my other stories, I am going to try and start updating those more often now that this is finally completed, but I still need to edit this whole thing so I can post it on AO3, so be patient with me until I get that process knocked out, and please let me know if you notice any mistakes so I can correct them.

And maybe leave a comment telling me what you thought of this, I know the ending was cheesy af, but hey - I liked it.

((((loving vibes))))

<3 starr