Missing

Dumb

T/W mentions alcoholism, self destructive behaviour in Gerards bit. (nothing too bad in my opinion but take care.)

"Thanks."

Frank glanced up, which proved difficult as pretty much his entire upper half was slouched over his desk. "Eh?"

Mikey sighed. It was Monday morning and they were both pretending to be paying attention in class. Mikey was wearing his grey beanie again. His eye was bruised under his glasses and his lip was cut. He was leaning back in his chair, foot tapping on the floor. "Thanks." He repeated.

"Oh. Okay." Frank frowned. His shoulder cracked as he tried to sit up and he inhaled sharply. "Why exactly?"

Mikey didn't look like he knew. "For helping me." He said eventually.

"For helping you." Frank repeated.

There was pause. "Ray told me to thank you." Mikey admitted, at least he had the decency to look sheepish.

Frank raised his eyebrows. "Okay then."

"I-" Mikey started, but stopped as Ms Wolff stopped rambling on about the french revolution (or aerobic respiration or the theory of fucking relativity or whatever the fuck she was talking about, he didn't know) and glared at the two of them.

They both simultaneously looked back down at their textbooks. They had a test tomorrow, Frank figured he should've probably started revising by now.

A minute or so later Mikey looked up again. "Seriously, thanks. I don't-" He stopped, his foot still tapping. "You helped me. So thanks."

Months from now, Frank would look back at this moment and smile, because Mikey Way was probably one of his favourite people in the world.

But current Frank didn't know that yet. Mostly because Mikey was kind of a dick. So he just said: "You suck at thank you's." Because Frank could be kind of a dick too, and looked back down at his textbook, missing Mikey's small flicker of a smile.

Mikey waited for Frank as he packed up his stuff.

Frank could tell because Mikey was usually out of the door seconds after the bell rang, but today he sat on his desk, tapping his foot again, this time on the table leg as he pretended not to pay attention to Frank and Frank pretended not to notice that he was waiting for him.

Eventually Frank stood up, meeting Mikey's eyes as he slung his bag over his shoulder. Mikey cleared his throat and stood up "Jamia told me you wanted cigarettes." He said, "I've got some. As a thanks."

With that, not seeming to care that they were literally standing in the middle of their classroom, Mikey tossed him a pack of cigarettes from his blazer pocket. Frank looked down. The pack was crumpled and half empty. There was a little sticker of a smiley face in the corner. Frank smiled. "Thanks." he looked up at Mikey who wasn't smiling exactly; but he wasn't NOT smiling either. Mikey did that a lot. It sort of suited him. Or maybe Frank was just getting used to it.

"I'm going to the old bathrooms, it's the only place the teachers don't patrol." Mikey started walking out of the classroom. He stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow expectantly. Frank realised he was meant to follow him. "So you should probably go with me."

"Woah, take me out to dinner first." Frank said, secretly pretty pleased with himself when Mikey lost his cool for a second, but just for a second.

Mikey still wasn't smiling, but Frank could hear traces of one in his voice, "Are you coming or not?"

"If you insist." Frank grinned at him and tucked the pack safely away into his pocket.

The bathroom looked the same as it had a week ago, only this time the light shining through the windows was colder, the clouds outside threatening rain any second. The first person he saw was Jamia, who was sitting in -literally, IN- one of the sinks. She was holding playing cards, frowning down at them.