This Is Our Second Skin (Frerard)

Epilogue

*above picture is of Frank and Gerard being cute af*

"You don't know how happy it makes me when I come home to find you here," Frank grinned up at Gerard as he took a bag of groceries from Frank's overburdened arms, quickly placing it onto the counter before Frank dropped them all over the tile flooring again.

"I've been living with you for almost a month Frank, I'm not going anywhere," Gerard teased as he located the eggs, storing them in the fridge so Frank wouldn't have a chance to get his hands on them, the poor things always ended up broken somehow if Frank so much as touched them.

"I know," Frank scoffed, "but it still makes me happy."

"Good, I always want to make you happy." Gerard chuckled to himself at the corny content of his comment, but Gerard had come to accept that he was one cheesy motherfucker, and Frank seemed to enjoy his clichéd lines at least.

"Oh wow - did you finish the last one?" Frank exclaimed, the remaining grocery bag he had been holding falling to the floor with a soft thump as Frank spun around, causing Gerard to wince over the fate of whatever food had been in it.

But when he followed Frank's gaze to the other side of the room, all thoughts of smashed groceries were forgotten, because Frank had noticed Gerard's most recent painting, his final piece in the set that was focused entirely on Frank's original songs. He had eventually caved and shown Frank the first few once he had completed them, and Frank had begun hanging them up in his apartment as soon as he found out what they meant and that they were intended for him.

But it wasn't just Frank's apartment now - it was Frank's and Gerard's; Frank had finally asked Gerard to move in with him about four months into their relationship, and Gerard didn't even have to think twice about his answer. He and Frank were always spending time at one or the other of their places anyway, so paying two sets of rent was really just a waste of money, not to mention Gerard had been dying to ask Frank that very same question for ages, but as always, Frank had beaten him to it.

But Frank hadn't seem to expect Gerard to say yes, so he had a whole speech lined up, which Gerard had listened to patiently when he realized there was no way he could get a word in edgewise, Frank kept talking over him whenever he tried to vocalize anything, but when Frank had mentioned that Gerard would be able to quit his job at Cartoon Network if he wanted, because Frank made more than enough to cover the rent, which would leave Gerard free to focus on painting, or whatever he wanted to do, his ears had perked up instantly, and Gerard had to resist the urge to call his boss right then and there to give him his resignation over the phone.

"Really Frank - you wouldn't mind, and I swear - I will get another job if my art doesn't sell, I would never mooch off of you," Gerard exclaimed happily, finally managing to cut Frank off, two of his fingers pinching the fleshy skin next to his thumb to make sure that this wasn't some vivid dream, even though life with Frank was sort of like existing in a fantasy in many ways.

"Don't worry about it Gerard, I know how much you hate that job, and I just want you to do something you love okay - money doesn't matter to me."

Frank was right about Gerard's current situation, because Gerard had escalated from low-key disliking his job to full on despising it in the past few months, any hopes of being promoted had been crushed out of him, his boss barely even looked his way anymore, and Gerard had given up entirely on ever introducing his ideas to a larger audience; before today, he had been resigned to working a boring desk job until he died - or snapped, but now he had another chance to follow his original plan of making art for a living, and it was all because of Frank.