The cawing of a bird wakes Gerard up. At first he's disoriented because there are no birds in HQ. He has a moment of panic before opening his eyes and seeing sunlight coming through a small window, high up on the wall of the shack behind the house they rented out for the next month and a half. They're lying on a blanket, waists covered by a single towel.
Gerard looks at Frank, whose head is using Gerard's bicep as a pillow. Their legs are tangled together and frank has the most serene face on that Gerard's ever seen. His breathing is even and his eyes are flicking around behind his eyelids. Gerard has a wonderful idea. He slowly detaches himself from Frank and moves so that Frank is on his back and Gerard is between his legs.
Frank wakes up to Gerard trailing soft kisses across his chest and rocking into him slowly. Frank is wide awake in seconds and he pulls Gerard's lips to his own.
It's nothing like the previous night's sex was, hard and needy and all teeth and nails. It was soft and gentle and all for the sake of just feeling one another as soon as they could.
When Gerard comes inside of Frank, it's not with a shout and the biting of Frank's shoulder, it's with a sigh and chaste kiss to the smaller man's lips. When Frank comes, it isn't with a silent shout, but with the relaxing of his entire body against Gerard's bigger frame. Gerard pulls out slowly, as though to savor the feeling of having Frank around him, and breaks the kiss so he can nose around in Frank's hair-which is getting long, Gerard realizes as the tresses tickle his nose in the most wonderful way.
"Frankie?" Frank kisses his shoulder in response. "I love you." The breathy laugh that comes from Frank's throat is enough of a response for Gerard. "I love you, so we're going swimming." He decides, standing and pulling the small man with him. Frank protests at first, and there's no doubt in Gerard's mind that it's from what all they were up to last night, Frank's ass is probably killing him.
"Don't worry, babe, I know you can't swim that well." He kisses Frank and picks him up in his arms like a bride and carries him back to the house, out of the shed and into the daylight that makes Frank's skin glow an almost green-brown color, courtesy of his olive skin. Gerard's skin, though, is a snowy white and is actually painful to look at, so Frank focuses on Gerard's face, the soft gentleness to it that could only be called bliss. Frank nuzzles Gerard's shoulder when he's set down in their bedroom-that was so cruelly neglected for the shed last night-and Gerard kisses the top of his head, starting to look for a blanket of some kind.
When he goes off in search of one, leaving Frank alone in the room, Frank can only reflect on last night and just minute before, all the times Gerard had touched him so gently, and the times when he hadn't been gentle about it.
Gerard comes back to an empty room and a closed bathroom door. He doesn't say anything, because one of two things is occurring and the lack of any noise confirms that Frank is, in fact, getting it off in there. He just smiles and sits on the edge of the bed, waits for him.
When Gerard's phone rings, the phone that was only to be called in the case of an emergency, he answers immediately, all thoughts of Frank pushed aside and the fearless Mafia leader taking his place back.
"Schecter, what's wrong?" Brian is breathing heavily, running, alarms are going off, there's shouting and what sounds like gun fire in the background. "Schecter!" He barks.
"Oh fuck, Gerard, Lindsey, her people broke in, we're in trouble, Gerard we need you back here, or she's gonna have them kill us a-" The line cuts off and Gerard pulls the phone away from his ear, looking at the screen.
"Call ended..." He bites on his thumbnail when he redials the number. Please, please, please, pick up.
"Gerard." It's a woman's voice, but not the one he wants to hear.
"Kitty. What the fuck are you doing to my men? We have no problems with you!" He shouts. There's a bit of a ruffle in the bathroom, but he ignores it, just Frank he reminds himself, just Frank.
"Maybe not, but a ransom is the best way to get what we want." He blinks a few times.
"What are you talking about?"
"Why don't you check on your little boyfriend, Gerard? I'm sure he's... dying to see you again." He throws open the bathroom door. No one's in there. The window is open and the shower curtain is ripped. There's something on the mirror he never wants to see again.
Frank's blood, his hand prints smeared along the bottom, trailing along the edge of the sink, a puddle on the floor. He shakily brings the phone back to his ear.
"Please, please don't hurt him. I'll give you whatever you want. Please, don't hurt Frank. He's the only one I care about, kill everyone else, but not him." Kitty laughs and the call ends.
Gerard knows he won't be able to get ahold of that number again.
