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"What is it?" Bert groaned, his voice was muffled due to the thick dark-wood door and the music playing behind it.

"Open the door, Bert, i'm not asking again." Gerard said firmly. Not at all phased by Bert's rude defiance.

There were dramatic, heavy footsteps leading to the door.

Bert opened his door radiating pure angst, "It's my fucking off day you can't make me do anything you said I deserved one day to breathe and-"

Gerard refrained from rolling his eyes and instead held up at dismissive hand to the boy.

Bert scowled at his hand childishly but didn't say anything more.

"I haven't come here to do anything like that, It is your day off and I respect that." Gerard's momentarily passive wording kept Bert quiet long enough for him to speak. "Though I do need to talk with you."

Bert crossed his arms and stepped out of the door way, "Talk about what?"

Gerard let himself into the room that he barely ever saw. More was heard from Berts room than any other. The loud rock music that he never turned down in regards to his house mates. No one ever came in Bert's wolf den of a room, taking a brief look around Gerard decided that that might be for the best seeing as Bert room was terrifyingly unkept and would give any other one of the maids a heart attack for sure.

Bert placed himself back onto his unmade bed, criss cross with a box of cigarettes in his hand. "I'm gonna guess that this is about Frank, yeah?"

Gerard hesitated, wanting to keep himself dominating the conversation as he had planned. "Yes, it is."

"I wanted to ask you if he was alright. . . he's been acting a bit off."

Gerard nodded, sighing. He knew now exactly what the problem was. He was still in shock of it himself, though we knew that he needed to deal with it.

"I think. . . Well I know what's causing this strange shift in his behavior." Gerard swallowed shifting uncomfortably under the boy's confused gaze. "He's displaying the signs of a heat. One coming soon at least."

Bert squinted like he'd never thought once of the possibility, like Gerard in the beginning.

"You mean like when they-"

"I know," Gerard said interrupting Bert's sentence that would have, no doubt, been something bawdy to make him upset. "What they do."

Bert grinned mischievously, his smirk was teasing and disrespectful itself.

"Sounds like fun for you, yeah?" Bert said.

Gerard kept his expression stern and unbothered, "Just be cautious of what's going on with Frank." He said.

Bert didn't reply but Gerard didn't have any fear of Bert doing anything he shouldn't. He wasn't a bad kid in his eyes and we was obviously fond of Frank like most others in the house.

He left respectfully, closing the door behind him as it was before he entered.

He was barely able to take two steps away from the door before he was met with a concerned Violetta.

"What is it?" Gerard said addressing her worried expression. His mind went to the worst, imagining that Frank had hurt himself or something worse.

"It's about Frank," She said in a gentle tone, she sounded more calm than she looked which calmed Gerard's nerves a bit. "He's begging to be let outside and—I well just don't find it safe with the condition he's in, sir. He's terribly desperate and the last thing that I want to do is upset him and now he's asking for you," He said, panic slowly seeping into her rushed words.

"Hey now, calm down, you're not upsetting him." He assured her, placing a hand on her small shoulder. "It's only natural for him to want to be let out he probably feels confined in the house, he is in heat after all."

Violetta nodded, "What should we do? I've left him with Magdalene and she's getting quite aggravated."

Gerard sighed at the mention of his short-tempered worker, "I'll handle it, don't worry."

Violetta looked relived, her shoulders relaxing dramatically, "Thank you so much."

"Well he is my responsibility, isn't he?" Gerard said starting towards the downstairs living room closest to the door.

"Well yes, I suppose so," She said following, "It's just a bit tiring working with a kitten in heat and Magdalene." She said as if the two were comparable.

Gerard smiled to himself, trying not to let Violetta see it, though failing.

"Sir, it's not funny." She complained with a lighthearted smile of her own. Her accent especially strong at the moment. "That woman is the single most irritable being on this Earth. . . well if I didn't know any better i'd say she had it out for dear Frankie." She said.

Gerard knew that Violetta wasn't a woman to speak illy of anyone so he took every word of her's seriously.

"Yes, Magdalene if known to be irascible at times though I do consider her a good worker. That's why I've kept her around all of these years." Gerard kept a hand on the old wooden stair rail decorated with details of gold.

"I agree that she is a superlative maid, it's just her additude towards Frankie that I cannot stand, I nearly told her off earlier. Her beliefs are crude."

"I understand, we've spoken about it once before, I'll talk to her again soon, though right now how about we figure out how to calm Frankie?" Gerard offered.

Violetta nodded and led him to the room that she had left him in. Entering the room, Gerard pitted the site.

Frank was no longer doing anything more than whimpering as he gazed sadly outside. Violetta assumed that Magdalene had forced him to hush, as he was now quiet as a mouse. He sat on the floor where he was when she left with his boy pressed against the large window, though now he was curled up against the glass with a longing look of desire for being outside on his face.

"What have you said to him?" Violetta said protectively kneeling near the boy and shooting daggers at Magdalene who was sitting carelessly on the couch with her legs crossed neatly, "watching" Frank as she had been instructed.

"I simply got him to behave why must you always insinuate that I've done something wrong?" She said calmly.

"He was behaving, he was only worked up because of his heat." She said back with as much disdain. She looked back down at Frank who had barely moved from his spot and pulled him to her chest, kissing the top of his head. He moved pliantly and she felt his little body relax against her's.

Gerard for once felt hopeless. He had no idea what to do or who at scold at the moment. Magdalene had obviously done or said something out of spite to have Frank acting the way that he was though with no proof of what she had done he could barely accuse of anything.

"Frankie, are you alright, honey?" Violetta whispered to the kitten holding him close and shielding him away from her coworker. A tight curl fell from behind her ear as she looked down at the kitten, obviously considered for him.

Gerard snapped out of his daze of confusion and rushed over to Violetta's side.

Frank was curled up like a baby in her arms, nodding to her question. When Gerard came near the two Frank's head slowly peaked up to see him, his soft-looking brown hair sliding away to reveal his distressed features. They softened meeting his eyes.

"Hey, honey." Gerard said calmly, wanting his voice to match the gentle atmosphere and keep Frank calm. He knew how uncomfortable he already was and didn't want to worsen his situation.

Frank didn't speak he only bit his lip and continued to hold the gaze they shared with each other. Gerard felt awful, physical pain surging through his heart as he trued to read the boy's face. He felt useless for not being there when Frank needed him to be, not wanting to keep the guilt he was feeling all for himself his thoughts shifted angry, thinking of Magdalene.

Gerard broke a way for a moment turning to Magdalene, who was looking much too comfortable while the attention wasn't on her.

"Magdalene, go wait in the servant's hall, i
I'll be with you shortly."

Magdalene stood up femininely refusing to show any worries of losing her work or being told off. She exited the room as she if she hadn't been asked, instead making a choice to do so, not before shooting a look towards Violetta and the small boy in her arms. He watched her leave before turning back to the two, Gerard hoped that her absence would help pry more words from the boy. Violetta was now stroking Frank's hair again and bouncing him lightly, though it looked like she was the one in need of calming. The anger on her face was more than present and her face was growing more red by the second. A small lady, she was but that didn't stop her from being daunt when in the right situation.

Gerard hesitated before speaking his next words, not wanting to offend.

"Violetta?" He asked

"Hm?" She said quietly still devoted to making Frank feel safe.

"Could you let me have some time to speak with Frank?" He asked.

She looked back up to him with a face that read "Go ahead."

Gerard smiled, "Alone?"

"Oh," She said, partly disappointed and partly surprised, "Of course."

She looked down the boy again sadly, kissing his forehead and stroking his bare arm. "I'll be back to see you soon." She said.

Gerard felt a pang of guilt in his chest at the sight. It was like separating a mother from its child. He wondered briefly if Frank had a mother, and if so did he know her? Miss her even?

Gerard took Frank into his arms and moved the to the couch, which was much more comfortable than the hard wood flooring.
Violetta left hesitantly, looking back at lest three times before allowing herself to let Frank out of her sight.

"A little birdie told me that you wanted to go outside." Gerard said calmly bouncing Frank on his knee a couple of times to gain his attention. He decided that dwelling on what happened moments ago when he was left alone with Magdalene wouldn't be the best tactic to get him to speak at the moment.

Frank nodded, the corner of his mouth raising a little at Gerard's tone.

He nodded understandingly, "Why's that?" Gerard asked, already knowing the reason. Franks instinct instructed him to mate during heats, and he needed to be outside to do so. Unfortunately for him Gerard couldn't let that happened for Frank's safety and his own cluelessness of whether Frank could carry a litter.

Frank huffed through his nose and curled closer to Gerard's chest, he shrugged.

"You don't know?"

Frank nodded, "Just need too," Frank said softly. His voice was soft and a little worn out probably from the supposed crying/whining that he'd been doing. He wiped over his red, irritated eyes with the front of his wrist. "I'm sleepy."

"You haven't eaten in a while, Frankie." Gerard said worriedly. He knew that this was normal and that since he was like this during the early stages of his heat that he would be the opposite soon.

Frank yawned arched his back before settling again in Gerard's arms. His eyes were now lightly closed and Gerard assumed that Frank didn't find his statement worth replying to.

"What if I can make you something you'd like? Sweets even." Gerard added.

"You can't make anything." Frank replied matter-of-factly with a small frown.

Gerard grinned and poked at the boy's ribs through his shirt, making him giggle. The sound was beautiful, making gerard ten times more happy just by hearing Frank's sleepy giggles. He enjoyed moments like this with the boy this close to him, sharing smiles and body heat.

"I'll take you to bed?" Gerard offered, still smiling after Frank's laughter reduced to a tired grin. Frank nodded, and wrapped hid arms around Gerard's neck.

•••

"I think he'll be fine." Violetta said placing a hand on Gerard's shoulder. "Stressing over this won't make anything better, and the last thing you'd want is Frank worrying."

The library had become a second bedroom to Gerard recently. He had more books about Frank's kind than he knew about and he couldn't keep his nose out of them. Heats were addressed in almost all of the books but nothing he read seemed to satisfy him. He wanted to be completely and utterly prepared for whatever happened next this week but it was impossible.

"I know he'll be fine, I wouldn't let him not be. . ." Gerard said, slipping a silk bookmark between the pages of his book. "I just don't want to be as clueless as I was in the beginning during something like this."

Violetta gave her boss a sympathetic look before nodding. "I care about Frankie too, Gerard, but you must understand that you simply cannot know everything." She tapped Gerard's shoulder playfully as something came to her mind, stopping him from arguing with her. "How about we go find his papers to calm your nerves. If there was anything too important happening soon it would've been mentioned, yes?"

•••

A maid was told to fetch Frank's documents from the safe storage of the spare office, a room that smelled of old books and forgotten papers, only existing as a home for Gerard's many businesses related documents.

He retreated to the library for its Comfortable atmosphere and soft lighting he hoped that being in a room that he loves so much will put his mind at ease, though unfortunately Magdalene decided to make herself present. looking over Gerards shoulder nosily as he shuffled through the thin packet that was Frank's metaphorical worth.

"Did they mention this inconvenience in his papers?" Magdalene asked. Her voice was annoyed as is she was going threw the heat, Gerard half ignored her.

"I'm not sure," He said still occupied, "I had Adelia look through them to inform me of anything important but I highly doubt they'ed leave out the detail of an overdue heat."

Magdalene hummed, "You should talk to her about that, you're much too easy on her."

Gerard kept his eyes at the words printed instead of rolling them at his worker like he wanted to. Nothing good can come out of unnecessary attitude.

"What makes you say that."

"Well not only is she an absolute disaster at socializing but rumor has it that she fancies you also." She said.

"Rumor has it" coming from someone like Magdalene was the equivalent to "I started telling people. . ."

"That'd be her business wouldn't it?" Gerard said raising an eyebrow.

"I suppose. . ." She trailed off looking over her shoulder, "It's completely inappropriate though. . . It would like you and Frank falling into a relationship." She said chucking.

Gerard didn't look up though he did pause from reading. His heart sped up without warning at the mention of Frank. He was most definitely not interested in Frank in that way. he couldn't imagine the outrage that that would cause Violetta.

"But that's ridiculous, isn't it." Magdalene said. Her tone had changed to something different. Previously humorous, it was now almost teasing. Gerard could hear the sick smirk on her lips.

Gerard wanted to agree so badly that it was in fact ridiculous because it should have been, but he just couldn't. As unrealistic as it sounded in his head he couldn't help but imagine he and Frank together. The sweet boy who already brought him more joy than anything else being his and his only didn't sound half bad. Still it couldn't and wouldn't happen if he had any morals. And he did.

"Very." Gerard answered after a pause.

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i'm out of school for the summer! hopefully that
means way more updates! i've been terrible at updating recently and losing followers for it, i'd like to apologize for my inconsistency and thank you for your patience.

votes and comments are greatly appreciated
(please comment i love reading them so much)

-serrae ✧

my insta is cupidphantom / phantomcherub btw :)