So Long, Not Goodnight

Chapter Twenty-Four

The rest of the water dribbled down the drain, the sound of the pipes swallowing it a low growl. They both dried each other off with plush white towels and chased each other back into the bedroom. The cracks of the splintered mirror fuzzy with fog, spiraling and winding around to it's center casting repeated reflections of their feet running down the hall, a silent stampede. The room was dark with just the streetlights and stars from outside, the night still young and alive. With it's rumpled covers, the bed seemed to call out for a body to hold. Gerard fell backwards onto it's invitation, letting his towel half fall to the floor as the other half was held under the small of his back. His dark black hair glistened in the darkness, a portal with the ends poking out and around his face and sheets. It felt so free, laying on his bed completely naked and scrubbed clean with his... I guess they were boyfriends now... Boyfriend staring at him like he was the most intricate piece of art hanging in a museum. 

Frank admired Gerard's position on his bed; his hair a bundle of black satin ribbon that fell beside both sharp and dimpled cheeks, the hills and valley of his lips that lay below the peak of his sloped nose, a razor of skin from his chin to his neck with the smallest bump right above the divot between collarbones, the gentle rifts of his ribcage behind his arms that moved about the bedspread fanning wings from his sides to the top of his head, the tiny black blip of his belly button as his pelvis tilted with the side of the mattress spilling down to the landscape between his thighs, over the creases of his kneecaps, down the sinewy strings of muscle scrunched up held by his arched feet that kept him in place. A smile ruptured on his lover's face, staring up at him from where they had been so intimately raw with each other not long ago. If given anything in the world to choose for his eternity, Frank wouldn't even need a second to think because it would be cocooned in these sheets in Gerard's arms. His brain clicked mental pictures of his partner rolling around under him, the hide and seek of his fingers in the folds of the blanket, the white glow of skin contrasted with the dark of his hair, the twitch of his laughter that you could hear just in the most modest smile. How was he so fortunate to be able to not only be in the presence of, but to have felt every single cell of this man's being? Never in his wildest dreams could he begin to fathom these feelings yet them actually real and at his fingertips, on his tongue, staring straight back at him through the most beautiful eyes he'd ever gaze into. 

"Frankie," Gerard giggled, smudging his palms over his face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" Frank shook his head sharply and held himself on the insides of his arms as his legs rubbed against Gerard's, dwindling off the side of the bed. 

"I don't know..." Gerard muffled through his hands. "Like you're trying to get inside of my head."

Frank took his hands from his face, his cheeks a peony pink from where he was rubbing. "I promise I wasn't. I was just admiring you and thinking about how fucking lucky I am."

"You aren't the lucky one, Frankie," Gerard exhaled, reaching up to bat at Frank's hair swaying above him. "I am."

Frank stared down as Gerard continued playing with his hair, feeling his heart break wanting to express how much Gerard is worth and wanting him to absorb it. "Baby," Frank caught his hands. "I know that it's hard for you to understand, but I am so lucky to have you. Please don't feel uncomfortable, but you are the most beautiful person I have ever met. Not just from the outside, but on the inside, too. I know how cliche that is, but it's the truth, baby. You're genuine, without a mean bone in your body. After all the choices that you could make, you choose to be with me and... I have my flaws, Gee, I have skeletons in my closet, too, that made me disappear from the world. But you found me and... And you stayed."

Something inside Gerard cracked as Frank began to tear up. "You stayed, Gee. Everyone that has ever mattered in my life... They all left. Wouldn't give me a chance. But you... You're here right now. I may know your past..." Frank sucked in a breath as a few drops dripped down his nose that he wiped against his bicep. "But you don't know mine yet."