The Storm Comes Before The Rainbow

•7•

"I'm home!" Patrick calls into the apartment.

"I'm in here."

Patrick walks into the bedroom and collapses on the bed, tired.

"Hey, baby. Did you eat yet?"

Patrick shakes his head.

"Are you hungry?"

"Tired."

Frank laughs. "You should eat. Come on, I'm pretty sure we have some frozen pancakes."

"I don't wanna. I'm comfy." Patrick flips on his side and pulls his knees up to his chest.

"You didn't get any water on you?" Frank asks as a question, pulling the somewhat wet coat off Patrick.

"No." Patrick mumbles.

"Get up, lazy butt." Frank pulls him up.

Patrick sits up and whines, pouting up at Frank.

"Patrick!" Frank cries, grabbing his boyfriends face.

"What!?" Patrick is alarmed.

"You...you have massive slice on your lip."

"Oh...the power went out at Andy's and I fell going up the stairs." Patrick's mouth begins to hurt now that he thinks about it.

"Baby..." Frank brushes his thumb along Patrick's lip like Pete did.

Except there's no tingles.

And his heart doesn't flutter.

It's probably just because he already is with Frank.

Absolutely nothing to worry about.

"I'm okay." Patrick smiles lightly.

"You sure? That looks painful."

"Yeah...once we got a flashlight, Pete helped me clean it up." Patrick nods.

Frank feels a twinge if jealousy rush through him. Someone else was able to help his boyfriend more than he was.

It makes him feel a little bad that he wasn't there....

...And a little jealous that his ex was.

"He didn't do a good job." Frank frowns, feeling the need to pull the odds in his favor.

Patrick frowns. "I thought he did pretty-"

"No. There's still so many things we can clean. Come here, baby. I'll take care of you." Frank smiles and wraps an arm around his boyfriend.

"Okay..." Patrick mumbles, unsure of why he needs to be cleaned up again.

The cut in itself hurt like bitch and talking was uncomfortable. Why would he want someone to poke at it even more? Nevertheless, he follows Frank. His stomach grumbles as Frank sits him up on the sink.

"We can get you some food later." Frank smiles sweetly and grabs an alcohol prep pad.

As Frank touches Patrick's lip, it causes him to yelp and pull away.

"I know it hurts but I need to clean it."

"It's clean..."

"No, honey, it's not." Frank gently grabs Patrick's jaw and brushes the alcohol all over it. It stings terribly and his lip throbs by the time Frank is done.

"Here's some of this medicated lip balm I got at Christmas."

"Christmas?"

"It's not that old, come on." Frank uncaps it and begins to rub the stick slowly along Patrick's lips.