We're Burning (Frerard)

14. Porcelain Dolls - Fragile, Not For Sale

„There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart." - Jane Austen

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Gerard fiddled nervously, wringing his hands together and digging his bitten nails into the spaces between nail and finger of the other hand. He bit on his lower lip, chewed and gnawed on it.

Anxiety rippled in his chest like waves on the delicate surface of water as he sat on the very edge of Frank's bed, waiting.

Wentz had left him there alone some time ago, assuring him that he could put himself at ease. For the most part, Gerard thought he could see it on Wentz' face that he knew Gerard wasn't going to relax. Having to wait for Frank didn't help his nerves.

Gerard waited, with a patience he'd never known he had, and tensed at each sound of rattling metal and footsteps nearby. His shoulders ached by the time ten minutes passed, protesting at the repetitive tensing and untensing.

Fifteen minutes after Wentz had left Gerard in Frank's room, finally the sound of footsteps didn't fade out. Instead, they stopped just outside the door, and were replaced by low voices that Gerard could not understand nor recognize with the door between them.

Biting down hard on his bottom lip, Gerard stood from the bed and carefully, silently, and on the very tips of his toes, made his way to the door. He held his breath as he put his ear to the hard surface of it. He listened carefully, trying to decipher the words.

Now close to the source of the voices, it was easy for Gerard to recognize them. Both men and whispering, careful of prying ears and eyes. Gerard wondered if they even knew he was in there. He did his best to swallow down his anxiety, and began picking out the hushed words.

"...fuck... refuse to - listen... me...!" Frank's quiet voice exclaimed and Gerard's pointed ear twitched against the door, straining to hear what was not meant for him.

An agreement was muttered on the other side of the door, voicing the little time they had to - what exactly, Gerard didn't know.

Gerard frowned and ground his teeth against each other, driving his teeth deeper into his lower lip in his frustration. These were Ray and Frank speaking, the same Ray and Frank who had given him a spark of hope, and then drowned it with a bucket of water. With the simplest of orders to a maid.

Even with Wentz' reassurance, Gerard still worried, and wished to know whether he could truly trust them or not. Yet he trusted Lindsey, and with all she had done for him in only the last few days, he thought he owed it to her to at least trust her and her... allies.

Specifically the ally who promised him no harm would be brought to him. Specifically Wentz. Gerard chewed on his lip, deep in thought and ignoring the little sparks of pain that began forming there.

For a moment, Ray and Frank went quiet, and Gerard began fearing that they might have heard him somehow. He held his breath, his heart pounding so loudly in his chest he thought to accuse it of being found.

By the time a small apology was heard through the thick door, Gerard's jaw was aching and his anxiety was skyrocketing. He heaved out a tiny, inaudible breath of relief, and silently made his way back to the edge of the bed. He sat down, his back taut and his fingers trembling, his brain producing a never ending swarm of questions regarding the little snippet of the conversation he had just heard.

The sound of footsteps came and went again, and Gerard wasn't sure whether he hoped Frank would come in and end whatever this was, or whether he hoped Frank would walk away from his room and the door would stay shut forever.

No matter which of the two Gerard preferred, he knew that it was already late in the evening, meaning Frank was bound to come into his room.

And just as Gerard knew it would, the door rattled as the key only Frank and his personal guards had, was brought inside it's hole. The doorknob twisted, and Frank stepped into his room.