We Can Run, Or We Can Die [Frerard]

Seventeen|The Great Quest To Find Michael James Way Part Two

Hands grabbed at clothes and mouths locked together as Frank and Gerard found themselves consumed by something neither of them wanted to put a name to. They were close to Mikey, so close, but had stopped because Ray had needed to hunt. There wasn't much to hunt around here, admittedly, but for a hybrid-vampire thing, he could probably handle it. The likelihood was, there was a man with a few dogs on a makeshift ranch or something.

"I know what you're doing back there." Bert muttered from the front, and Gerard broke from Frank long enough to tell him to fuck off, and he sighed. "Fine. I'm hungry anyway."

They barely registered the slam of the car door, lost inside each other, pressed up against one another in the confined space of the car. They didn't know why or quite how this had happened, only that one minute they'd been holding each other in the back while Ray hummed beside Bert, the next Frank's fingers had been dancing up the elder's thigh and their mouths suddenly fused together.

It wasn't an altogether unpleasant feeling, but it was stronger than either of them wanted to admit. And they were both trying their hardest to forget; Frank wanted to forget all the lies he'd told and everything he'd done, and Gerard wanted to forget the unshakeable feeling that all this was for shit. That Mikey wasn't even alive by now.

They'd lost count of the days, so it had to have been at least a week or maybe two since they'd met, but they didn't know, a lot had happened since then, and they were both unhealthily scared. What would happen once Gerard had found his brother? Would they all stick together? They kind of needed to, Ray included if he was on their side (though Frank thought that maybe he wasn't on anyone's side and still didn't trust him enough to sleep in the car around him), if they were going to survive this. After Mikey, he wanted to see if there was a survivors' camp anywhere, another group just like them, so that maybe they could build civilisation back up again. It had been four years. There had to be.

Gerard pulled Frank's vest thing off him, tracing the scarring down his left side. "What happened?" He asked, face buried in the younger's neck. "Who did this to you?"

Frank swallowed heavily. "It's nothing. I'll tell you later. Now isn't the time." He brought their mouths back together, but all he could see behind his closed eyes was her, and the fire, and the pain.

He ended up on top as best as he could, running his hand up Gerard's chest. He didn't know he was shaking until the elder pulled away, frowning in concern, brushing his hair from his face. He realised then that he didn't want to go any further; to offer himself to Gerard and have Gerard offer himself in return, only to destroy the man in a few hours, would kill him. He needed to know that Gerard really wanted him. Even after all of this mess.

"She set fire to me," he choked out, burying his face in Gerard's neck. "Lindsey doused my tent in gasoline and set fire to it, and because it was small, it was really hard to get out of, and - and -" he swallowed heavily, tears running down his face, and he pushed his hair back and lifted the eyepatch, hearing Gerard's gasp. "I didn't exactly turn into Two-Face, but I thought I was going to die..."

"Why did she do it?" The elder whispered, pressing a hand to Frank's unscarred cheek. "Why would she do something so fucked-up?"

"Because I killed someone."

~

Ryan had passed out three hours ago and hadn't woken up. Lindsey checked him every half-hour, in case he wasn't breathing, but everything seemed to be fine, if a little slow. His skin was a scary shade of white, almost gray, which wasn't normal at all, and she'd changed the bandages on his hand only to find that the wound was badly infected and oozing blood.