Random Frerard Fluff [ONE SHOTS] [COMPLETED]

Sensitivity

A lovely AU KIDFIC for y'all. xx

There was to be a new student joining his class today, Frank remembered excitedly as he clambered out of bed in the morning; squealing something about Pop Tarts, running into his mother's room, and jumping on her bed to effectively bruise her already fragile three hours of sleep. Frank always got far too excited about new students, and Linda supposed that it had something to do with his inner faith that one of them will want to be his friend one day. Frank didn't have any friends.

"Frank, settle down for God's sake," she grumbled, swatting the seven-year-old away from her.

"But mom," he whined, "I have to be at school right now."

Linda checked the clock at her bedside and groaned.

"It's seven o'clock. You don't have to be there until eight thirty. Can't I have at least half an hour's rest before I have to get up?"

Frank nodded gloomily, and scuttled downstairs to busy himself with getting ready. He skirted around the edges of the kitchen for a few minutes, wondering if he could possibly prepare his own Pop Tarts, before deciding that it was potentially too difficult and required the high level skill that only a mother could possess. Then, he found himself in the laundry, cleaving through the mountain of freshly washed clothes in search of school-worthy garments. He paired some blue shorts with a green dinosaur t-shirt, climbed the stairs to his mother's room, entered once again, glanced at his reflection in her full-length mirror, smiled approvingly, and spotted his mother's cranky face behind him. She was sitting up in bed, arms crossed, and looking very stern.

"You're not going to leave me alone are you?"

Frank gulped and dashed out the door.

---

Frank arrived at a-quarter-past-eight, meaning that he'd have fifteen minutes playtime in the classroom before school officially began. As soon as he walked in the door, his eyes were darting around the room in hopes of catching a glimpse of the new student. This time he would get to be their buddy, because he'd gone ahead and asked the teacher – Mrs Strauss – in advance and everything. His eyes finally fell upon the back of an unfamiliar boy; his class didn't previously have any boys with black hair, so this kid simply had to be the new student. Frank sucked up all his courage and confidence in a single breath and strutted over to the boy. He stopped three steps short and announced,

"Hi. I'm Frank."

The boy didn't answer, so Frank repeated himself. The boy still didn't answer. Frank decided that he mustn't have heard. He introduced himself for a third time, and when this didn't heed a response, he began to feel agitated. Why wasn't the boy listening to him? He continued walking until he was directly in front of the kid, who was completing a fairly intricate-looking jigsaw puzzle that meshed together to create a dolphin leaping out of the ocean. Frank studied the boy's face briefly. He had two hazel eyes, pale skin, a slightly turned up nose, floppy bangs, and a little pink tongue that peeked out of his mouth with his evident concentration. The boy looked as if he was concentrating so hard that he hadn't even noticed Frank's approach. This annoyed Frank even further. "Hello?" he called loudly, almost in a shout. He bent forward and clapped his hands in the boy's face obnoxiously. That seemed to do it, because the boy nearly jumped out of his skin – reeling backwards in pure fright and scampering as far away as he could from Frank with a strangled cry, messing up his jigsaw in the process. Frank frowned.

At this point, the teacher seemed to realise what was going on. She abandoned the woman that she'd been talking to and sped over, pushing past Frank to get to the new boy.

"Maria!" she called over her shoulder, gesturing for the woman to follow. The woman, Maria, knelt down next to the boy and made a series of funny movements with her hands. The boy reciprocated her movements, but they were slower and more reserved. Frank thought that they might have been different movements altogether. He turned and gazed up at Mrs Strauss inquisitively, who grabbed his hand and led him a few feet away. "That's Gerard," she said quietly, "and he's our new student. I know that you were just trying to be nice, but-"

"He's mean," Frank interrupted sulkily.

"Oh really?" Mrs Strauss asked curiously, blinking in surprise. "How so?"

"He didn't listen to me when I spoke to him, Miss. He just pretended I wasn't there."

Frank looked over to Gerard and Maria, who were still making the hand movements at each other. Mrs Strauss' face softened.

"Oh, Frank, no he wasn't doing that. Gerard's deaf, which means that his ears don't work like ours do."

At the word 'deaf', Frank's memory kicked into gear and he remembered something that his mother had told him once, about his great-grandpa. Frank's great-grandpa couldn't hear properly, so sometimes he made signs with his hands that helped him communicate. The hand signs were a second language to him. But Frank had never heard of someone who was deaf as well as young. He thought it was only something that happened to the elderly as they grew older.

"He can't hear me?"

Mrs Strauss nodded.

"Miss Maria over there is his translator," she added. "She isn't deaf, but she knows Sign Language, which means she can talk to Gerard and Gerard to her. When I'm teaching the class, she puts my words into Sign Language, so that Gerard can understand what I'm saying."

Frank's mouth dropped open. He felt an overwhelming urge to apologise for startling Gerard as a wave of guilt washed over him. Suddenly, he had an idea.

"Can he read and write?" Frank asked curiously. Mrs Strauss nodded again. Frank ran over to his desk and retrieved a pencil and paper. On the paper, he scrawled out a messy message. im sory, it read. He then began to move back toward where Gerard and Maria were situated; Gerard back at his jigsaw, and Maria standing over him. He dropped to the floor opposite Gerard, careful not to scare him this time, and crossed his legs. Gerard looked up apprehensively, his hazel eyes peering questioningly through his bangs. Frank held up his sign. He felt as if he'd deftly created his own sign language. Gerard read it and smiled bashfully, offering a jigsaw piece to Frank. It looked like they'd be buddies after all.

A/N

I haven't updated for so so so long this is unacceptable. im sory. I've just been vv busy atm. Anyway, tbh, this is my favourite one-shot so far it's just so cute im

Love,

Olz