Sunshine (Frerard)

Chapter 4

As Gerard woke the next day, he pushed his shoulders back, lifting his arms above his head and arching his back until he heard a click before letting out a satisfied huff, settling back down into the bed. His bedroom door creaked open moments later, revealing Frank's face with tired eyes and a smile on his face. He strolled over to the bed and jumped up, lying on top of Gerard with his hands folded over Gerard's chest and his head resting on his knuckles. Gerard remained still, confused but enjoying the fact that it seemed to be that Frank was finally realising this was a safe space, he wasn't going to be hurt.

"Hi, Gee." He smiled. "I sleeped good, did you sleep good?"

"Yeah i did, thank you, Frankie." Gerard smiled back, rubbing a hand up and down Frank's back gently. "I'm going to take you somewhere today, okay?"

"Wh-what?" Frank's eyes started to well up. "I not wanna leave you."

"Oh, shit, sweetheart." He instantly felt bad about springing the information on the fragile boy without an explanation. "We're going to find someone to take care of you, baby, it's for the best."

"B-but," he sniffled and sat up, legs either side of Gerard's. "You take care of me."

Gerard thought about it for a minute, genuinely considering letting Frank live with him. He could certainly afford it, while he wasn't rich he had some money to spare, but even so wouldn't Frank be better off with someone else?

"We might find your family, honey, wouldn't you like that?"

"Wha's that?" Frank asked as he tilted his head to the side, eyeing Gerard curiously.

"Well, uh.. family is like the people that made you, where you came from." He tried his best to explain.

"I come from Sir's house, you know that, silly." Frank giggled like it was obvious.

"Is Sir your dad, Frankie?"

"Sir teached me 'bout Mommies 'n' Daddies." He smiled proudly as he continued. "He said I'm a special boy so I not have Mommies and Daddies."

"Baby, everyone has parents. Your Mommy and Daddy might be looking for you, and we can help you find them." He said hopefully, still sad about the thought of Frank leaving but knowing it's for the best.

"But only want you 'n' Sir, Gee." He pouted and sniffled. "Pwease no take me."

As Gerard looked at the fragile, broken pieces of a boy sitting on his legs he thought that maybe looking after him could work. It seemed that Frank had already grown attached to Gerard, considering that he didn't get much kindness where he was before.

"Okay." Gerard took a breath as it sunk in. "You can stay with me."

As Frank squealed and lurched forward to consume Gerard in a hug, which really didn't have all that much impact considering how malnourished the poor thing was, he realised that he really needed to work on not being persuaded so easily. One minute he was adamant on taking Frank to the police and within minutes he had a new roommate.

One thing Frank clearly was lacking was basic intelligence, his grammar was broken which made Gerard wonder if he could even read or write.

"How would you feel about learning some stuff with me, hm?" Gerard asked. "Maths, english, science, anything you want."

"I like learnings." He smiled again. "I can count!"

"Really?" Gerard was genuinely surprised. "Show me your counting, honey."

"One, two, three, four, five!" Frank held up his left hand, pointing to the tip of each finger as he counted along. "See!"

"Well done, Frankie." He smiled in encouragement. "Keep going, sweetheart."

"K-Keep going?" Frank frowned in confusion, looking down at his hand trying to figure out where to go next. "More numbers?"

Gerard soon realised that he count only count to five, which was a start. Getting him to count to twenty seemed like a good starting point for the 'lessons' Gerard would be attempting. In high school his grades were average, definitely not high enough to be a teacher but he was sure he could help Frank out with the basics.

For the next hour or so, Gerard explained to Frank that numbers are endless, which earned an adorable expression of pure shock and wonder at the statement. It took a while for Frank to remember the numbers and fully grasp what he was being told, which was to be expected; finding out that he could carry on using his other hand seemed to blow his mind.

"Nineteen, twenty!" He exclaimed after a few tries. "Gee! I gots it right! I renembered!"

"Well done, baby! You did so well." He smiled and decided to try something else. "Also, it's remember, honey, not renember."

"Renember." Frank stated.

"Re-" Gerard said slowly.

"Re-" Frank copied.

"Mem-"

"Mem-"

"Ber-"

"Ber-"

"Remember." Gerard said, trying to sound it out slower.

"Renember." Frank said with a smile.

"We'll save that for later, I suppose." Gerard smiled a lazy half smile in return and made the decision that they should both probably leave his bedroom sooner rather than later. It was nearing lunch time and neither had eaten, which was sadly normal for Frank, but Gerard's stomach was growling.

"Let's get some food into that cute belly of yours." Gerard said as he moved Frank off of his legs and stood, stumbling momentarily as the blood rushed to his feet.

Frank hopped up and skipped down to the kitchen, kneeling on the floor next to the chairs lining the kitchen table, making it apparent that he still felt he needed to follow old rules, which broke Gerard's heart a little bit.

"Frankie, you can sit on the chairs." He said as he strolled over to the fridge, peeking in to see what they had.

Frank looked around nervously before pulling out a chair, creeping up onto the seat cautiously.

"Like it here, Gee." He giggled once he'd sat down properly on the chair. He started swinging his feet and playing with his hands as we waited for Gerard to bring over food, with the elder watching fondly for a moment before starting to fix up breakfast for the two of them.