Gerard felt that something was unusual when he woke up to the sound of his phone ringing - to a Green Day song, for a change. All the memories from the day before flashed in his mind.

Anthony.
Frank.
Fight.
Pain.
Blackout.

Gerard felt a knot in his stomach as he fully remembered everything that had happened, and started wondering how he could face the twins about it or what he could possibly say to make everything alright. Maybe he just couldn't.

He rubbed his eyes and sat up, and that's when he saw his diary open on the nightstand at the page. Gerard felt panic rise up inside his chest, once again.

No no no, Gerard, get your shit back together, you can't let panic overwhelm you all the time. There must be an explanation to this.

But deep down, Gerard knew there wasn't. Or more exactly there was one and solely one : Frank and Anthony had brought him back to his bedroom, which was nice of them. But it was now obvious that they had been the ones finding Gerard's diary, who hadn't bothered hiding it like he usually did.

Gerard was absolutely sure that he hadn't just left it open like that and certainly not on this page. He tried to avoid thinking about this part of his life. He believed that if he kept ignoring it, then it would be like it had never existed in people's mind - his own, to begin with.

Gerard's confusion turned into upsetting : he was frightened that Anthony and Frank had understood everything that had happened. And then, just like when Bert had sent this video to everybody in the school, Gerard began overthinking, convinced that the twins were now disgusted by the slut he was.

But Gerard also felt some odd kind of anger towards the twins. How dare they read about his private life like that, when he was passed out?!

It was with these mixed feelings spinning inside his mind that Gerard went out of his room to get breakfast.

In the common room, Gerard sat at a table next to Ray and Brendon without a tray since he never ate in the morning. Frank and Anthony immediatly headed for him.

"Gerard, hey..." Anthony awkwardly began.

"We need to talk to you about something, it's important, please."

Gerard looked up at them and mentally debated on what he should say. Should he tell them to fuck off? No, too rude and savage. Say sorry? Well, Gerard had messed up but so had the twins by meddling.

Gerard had no idea of what he should say, so he decided to give them the silence treatement. He didn't want to deal with his past again and confront the twins about it. He just looked at them, keeping silent.

"...I think Gerard is still waking up." Ray eventually spoke, trying to stay neutral in this.

"Okay well, Gee, meet us in my room after breakfast, we have to talk." said Anthony.

Gerard looked away without speaking a word. He stayed silent while his friends were eating, thinking about the aftermath of everything that had happened last night. Of course, Gerard didn't go to the appointment made by the twins. He was angry, angry and ashamed.

After preparing themselves, the students went in the hall as they were told to. All the teachers were here and explained that 'in order to fully apprehend the patrimony of Cambridge, they would have to work in pairs and present one of the building amongst the ones on the list : its history and use today...' , blablabla.

"Now I'll announce you the pairs we formed. You and your partner can leave and get to work as soon as you hear your name. You have at your disposal the library of the hostel on the ground floor and all its computers on the third floor." Mrs Navarro spoke with a liste of names in the hand.

"Ray Toro and Josh Dun. Dallon Weekes and Vic Fuentes. Hayley Williams and Carla Krueger."

Poor Hayley. Gerard knew her a little, enough to know that she was awesome and energic, whereas - sober - Carla was very humble and really, she had excellent reasons to be.

"Brendon Urie and Ryan Ross. Mike Fuentes and Tyler Joseph. Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump."

Well, at least Brendon and Pete will stay focused on their work without Dallon and Mikey around, right?

This went on and on until there were only two people left in the room.

Gerard knew who he was with and he knew this person was staring at him, but Gerard kept looking at the teacher, wating for her to speak these words.

"Gerard Way and Frank Iero."

Gerard decided to go to the library and Frank followed, still looking at Gerard insistantly. Anthony was in pairs with one of his friends, the puppy-eyed guy, a boy named Kellin Quinn.

Both Gerard and Frank arrived at the library which was empty. That's not surprising since all the students had rushed to the computers to avoid being in contact with these dusty archaic things called ''books''.

As to Gerard and Frank, they had been the last to leave so all the computers were probably already taken. At least Gerard thought so, he didn't bother checking but he wanted to be alone anyway and didn't leave Frank much of a choice. For Frank, it was either leave Gerard or stay and really, that wasn't a hard choice for him to make.

The library was composed of impresively high shelves that pretty much reached the ceiling, 20 feet from the floor.

Gerard grabbed a couple of books on a shelf that corresponded to their topic and sat at a massive wooden table that smelt strongly like, well, wood. Frank followed and sat next to him, silent until he finally decided to speak : "Gerard? Can we talk?"

Gerard kept leafing his book but truth be told, he didn't care about what was in it. He just needed an excuse to keep himself - his gaze, his thoughts - busy on something, anything but Frank.

Frank turned to Gerard to face him and put a hand on his shoulder. Gerard firstly looked at this foreign hand on him, then his gaze trailed up to Frank's golden eyes. He was looking for even the slightest ounce of contempt or hatred in Frank's eyes, but found nothing other than genuine concern.

"Gerard, please..."

Gerard looked away again, as the words had woken him up.

"Gerard, listen. You don't have to look at me if you don't want to or if you're uncomfortable with it but please, just listen."

Gerard kept his eyes locked on the book, not even registering what they were seeing. They watered but not enough for a tear to roll down. Both Gerard and Frank were aware of how much this silence treatement hurt the both of them.

"Gerard..." Frank began, looking for the right words. "Whatever happened last night was an accident. It's okay, we all make mistakes. I do too, far more than you think. I'm very far from perfect." Frank humorlessly chuckled; it wasn't the most pleasing thing to admit to others and certainly not to oneself.

"But if you think that what happened has changed my opinion of you, then you're wrong. To me, you're as perfect today as you were yesterday morning."

Gerard looked up from his book to meet Frank's gaze again.

"Yeah, you heard me." Frank resumed. "To me, you're perfect. Don't think that you're not worth attention or anything at all because you deserve the fucking world. I don't know how to express that so you understand, but I'll keep saying it in all the possible ways until you finally accept it. You are beautiful, Gerard Way."

Gerard's eyes slightly widened. He had already heard that before from different people, but those words had never seemed so right, so soft and so true than when they came out of Frank Iero's mouth at this precise moment.

"But there's something else. Your diary... I'll be honest with you, we read it. I mean, parts of it. And... truth be told, we're lost. Lost and worried. Worried for you."

Gerard felt his heart jump in fear at the mention of the diary. He looked away but Frank gently put a hand on his pale cheek.

"No, that's not what I meant, please don't look away." Frank said apologetically. He took a deep breath, taking his hand away. "I know it's hard but you need to trust us and know you can to open up to us ; you can't leave us to our imagination. And Gee, be sure that whatever happened to you, whatever you might say, we'll always love you no matter what, okay?"

Gerard opened his mouth as he was about to say something, but closed it without speaking a word. Frank put his hand on Gerard's shoulder.

"Gerard, you have no idea of how much you mean to me. So let me tell you : you are my everything, and I love you much more than myself or anyone."

Frank had never been so blunt in his life. Gerard somehow grasped that and looked up at the punk.

Frank stayed quiet then. What else could he say? To prove that what he had just stated was genuine and true, he slowly leaned forward and put his lips on Gerard's. There wasn't any pressure or movement and yet, Gerard felt enthralled, goosebumps running on his pale skin.

They stayed like that, lips connected and ramrod straight, for a few seconds that felt like minutes to them.

Frank eventually pulled back and a silence settled, until he spoke up : "You need to trust Anthony and I ; we can help you. Don't put walls around yourself. Please talk to us. Please."

Gerard didn't reply. Frank sighed, taking his face in his hands and wondering what he could he say to make things alright.

"Okay." Gerard spoke softly.

______